Mapping Educational Opportunity Zones: A Geospatial Analysis of Neighborhood Block Groups

The author uses geospatial analysis to examine the “educational opportunity spaces” of two adjacent urban neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Organizing insights are gathered from Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological perspectives on human development, which posit that students are significantly impacted by multiple environmental systems—including their immediate family and school surroundings and several other mutually affective layers of systems. The author suggests that while school and district-based reform initiatives targeting “within school factors” clearly have direct and significant relevance on student performance, neighborhood and community factors are also worthy of consideration. Based on analyses of multiple block-level data, several recommendations are made toward the further integration of school and community-based practice.