Where to Find Community Data and Local History - Partnering with Communities - Research and Resources - LibGuides at Relay Graduate School of Education

General Resources for Demographic and Other Data

Links:

CARES HQ
CARES HQ provides maps and data related to health, environment, agriculture, safety, education, and the economy. Visit the map room to create a custom map, or visit the Assessment page to find data for your county across a number of indicators.
Census Data
Plug in your district’s zip code and explore school enrollment, ancestry, languages spoken at home
Census QuickFacts
Provides statistics for all states, counties, and cities/towns with a population of 500 or more.
Civil Rights Data Collection
Search by school or district to find enrollment demographics, retention rates, etc. This is a wide ranging database of nearly every school/district in the country with relatively easy to understand data layouts. However, note that the data stops around 2017.
County Health Rankings and Roadmaps
Provides health data by county
Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) Geocoding System
Enter an address to find demographic information for the area.
GreatSchools.org
This is a highly engaging and easy to use data set including teacher and family voices. Note, however, that this data set is far from objective as scores and grades are assigned to specific schools and districts based upon an internally decided grading system that may not correlate with all users.
Mapping America
A tool from the Social Science Research Council that provides mapped data of various measures related to well-being in America.
Measure of America
A website from the Social Science Research Council that provides tools and information about various communities and issues
National Center for Education Statistics - Individual Schools
This is an updated and relatively user friendly interface for data on school districts from the United States epartment of Education. Some, but by no means all, policymakers hold Federal data in higher regard.
National Center for Education Statistics - School Districts
This is an an updated and relaitvely user friendly interface for data on school districts from the United States epartment of Education. Some, but by no means all, policymakers hold Federal data in higher regard.

Additional Tips:

Visit state and city education websites to learn about demographics of the community and the structure and history of school districts
County and city planning department websites often contain population, housing, and economic data
Social service agencies and health department websites may also contain information about the demographics and health of the community

General Resources for State and Local History

Links:

The National History Day Affiliates
Contains links to a number of state history resources. Select your state under "Choose a Location."
Clio
An educational website that provides a guide to thousands of historical and cultural sites throughout the US.
NEH Teacher's Guide: Investigating Local History
The National Endowment for the Humanities provides links to a number of digital encyclopedias and other resources on state and local history.
Sanborn Maps Navigator (Library of Congress)
The Sanborn Maps Navigator was created by 2020 Library of Congress Junior Fellow Selena Qian to explore the United States through historic maps and newspaper photographs. Qian’s tool combines 32,000 maps from the Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlases collection and 1,494,585 photographs from the Newspaper Navigator dataset.

Additional Tips:

Look for websites for your local public library, local newspaper, local archives, local universities, local museums, or local historical societies to research community history

Resource Guides for Each State

Colorado
by Jennifer Shimada Last Updated Nov 3, 2024 31 views this year
Connecticut
by Jennifer Shimada Last Updated Nov 3, 2024 13 views this year
Delaware
by Jennifer Shimada Last Updated Nov 3, 2024 1 views this year
Georgia
by Jennifer Shimada Last Updated Nov 3, 2024 13 views this year
Illinois
by Jennifer Shimada Last Updated Nov 3, 2024 14 views this year
New Jersey
by Jennifer Shimada Last Updated Nov 3, 2024 32 views this year
New York
by Jennifer Shimada Last Updated Nov 3, 2024 11 views this year
Pennsylvania
by Travis Basso Last Updated Nov 3, 2024 18 views this year
Rhode Island
by Jennifer Shimada Last Updated Nov 3, 2024 3 views this year
Tennessee
by Jennifer Shimada Last Updated Nov 3, 2024 56 views this year
Texas
by Jennifer Shimada Last Updated Nov 3, 2024 6 views this year
Washington, D.C.
by Jennifer Shimada Last Updated Nov 3, 2024 7 views this year

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