Private Schools (and Starbucks) in DC

Percent of K-12 Kids Enrolled in Private School in DC: 2000

Readers wanted a DC map, and soupa-prof delivered. Click to enlarge - and for fun, the Starbucks are represented by green dots.

Why NYC Private School Kids Drink Frappuccinos

Edudiva and others asked for more analysis on NYC private school attendance (prior posts here and here). Below is a map displaying the proportion of K-12 kids that go to private school by neighborhood. Thanks to my friend "soupa prof," this map makes it easier to see which NYC neighborhoods send high proportions of K-12 kids to private school. (Click on the map below to enlarge.)

NYC K-12 Private School Enrollment by Census Tract, 2000

In the map below, soupa prof also marked every Starbucks location in Manhattan with a green dot. If we adopt education policy's traditional logic - i.e., correlation equals causation - we can conclude that going to private school starts kids down the crooked path of frappuccino consumption.

Manhattan K-12 Private School Enrollment and Starbucks Locations

Or! Maybe Starbucks locate in affluent neighborhoods - as Ms. Frizzle has noted, peppermint mochas and crack are about the same price. Thanks to skoolboy, here's a graph plotting the percentage of students attending private school in a given census tract against median family income. The graph shows a remarkably strong relationship between the two; the correlation is .85.

In short, the Benjamins explain the frap addictions of our well-heeled NYC kids.

Where NYC's Gossip Girls (and Boys) Are

Earlier, I posted the percentage of NYC K-12 kids attending private school by Community School District, but let's get specific. From which neighborhoods do NYC's private school kids hail? Here's a fun pre-Gossip Girl teaser. Not like I watch it or anything.

You'll want to click on the image below to enlarge; darker blue regions mean that higher proportions of K-12 kids are enrolled in private school. The legend is at the bottom of the map. If you'd like a better copy of this image, email me.

NYC K-12 Private School Enrollment by Census Tract, 2000

The three census tracts in Manhattan with the highest proportions of K-12 kids enrolled in private school can be found at the following addresses. No shocker, but they're all on the Upper East Side:

1) East63rd-70th between 5th and Park : 87.6% of K-12 kids attend private school

2) East 58th-63rd between 5th and Park: 87.5%

3) East 91st-96th between 5th and Park: 86.0% (This is the census tract of the GG school, which is on 93rd, east of 5th Ave.)

(Note: These are the top three census tracts in Manhattan of those that have at least 25 kids enrolled in K-12. There are actually 5 census tracts in Manhattan where 100% of kids are enrolled in private school, but there are only small numbers of kids enrolled in K-12 in these tracts- i.e. less than 25.)

Many thanks to skoolboy for the data and to soupa prof for the map; one of these two edu-boys (skoolboy) will be making a guest blogging appearance in the not-so-distant future.

Gossip Girl Meets GIS: Private School Enrollments in NYC

Based on a series of novels by an Upper East Side private school survivor, "Gossip Girl" is a new teen drama that details the lives of the "rich and the popular" teens on the Upper East Side. It's certainly not high art, but all the hype got me wondering what proportion of NYC K-12 kids go to private school by neighborhood.

The 2000 Census includes data on school enrollment - and with the help of skoolboy (thank you!), who processed these data, here's what I found out:

• In 6 of the 32 community school districts, 25% or more of the K-12 students are enrolled in private school. These districts are marked in green below. (Sorry about the ramshackle map - no time for GIS tonight.) In Manhattan's District 2, a whopping 43% of all K-12 students are enrolled in private school. Other heavy private school districts include Manhattan's District 3 and Brooklyn's districts 14, 20, 21, and 22.
  
  
• In 11 of the 32 community school districts, 15% - 25% of the K-12 students are enrolled in private school. These districts are marked in blue below.
  
  
• For the blue/green colorblind, see the table below which lists the percentage of K-12 students enrolled in private school by district.

Percentage of K-12 students Enrolled in Private School by
Community School District
(green>=25%; blue=15.0-24.99%)

And for anyone who is curious, here is a write-up of "Gossip Girl" in the New Yorker and the trailer: