Mapping History and Policy: A Spatial Analysis of Educational Inequity in Baltimore City

• In Event: 18.071 - Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: 18.071-17 - Framing Educational (In)Equity in Baltimore: From Origins to Solutions

Abstract

Objectives
The purpose of this presentation is to illuminate the issue of educational inequity in Baltimore through the lens of geospatial analysis. This presentation extends the presentation of the first panelist by illustrating historic policies of exclusion, displacement and placement in Baltimore through mapping. This paper also helps to contextualize place for the remaining papers on the panel. Further this presentation aims to demonstrate the intersectionality of inequity across education, health, economic and environmental indicators.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework:
The relationship between health disparities and education for youth is more widely accepted than there are specific policies in place to address the disproportionate burden of
disease and death in America’s most impoverished communities and its impact on education
Strategies to improve health and education are more generally approached as though health and education are separate and unrelated. The aim of the proposed research is to illuminate educational inequity in Baltimore City through geospatial analysis of indicators including housing, environmental exposures, and health.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry:
The presentation draws upon archival material in the form of historical maps, secondary analysis of existing data sets, and use of geospatial information analysis to develop maps and overlays of health, housing, environmental and social indicators.

Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials:
Data sources include the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), the repository of the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance (BNIA), and the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD).

Results and/or substantiated conclusions:
The results highlight how the mapping of educational, housing, health and environmental indicators provide a visual narrative of inequity in Baltimore.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work:
The proposed research is significant because it transforms the representation of the data often used to describe the educational landscape of Baltimore from quantitative reports and descriptive, qualitative data to a visual representation of inequity across the physical landscape of Baltimore. These maps will demonstrate the legacy of exclusionary practices and policies for food environment, trauma, and environmental exposure. The results help to generate practice and policy recommendations that will help inform strategies for addressing educational inequity.

Authors

• Tracy R. Rone, Morgan State University

• Jeanetta Churchill, Morgan State University