School Libraries to Read the World

The main purpose of this paper is to present the intervention of the School Libraries Network Program in establishing projects and enlarged partnerships that leverage and consolidate the role of libraries in communities and open the students' access to knowledge and learning beyond the school boundaries. In this context a few examples are given and we describe some of the cooperative projects developed by the Program with different partners, public and private, in areas related to students’ education and the construction of citizenship: reading, information, media, science, digital technologies, health, inclusion, heritage and others. These projects and partnerships are an important factor of strengthening, projection and sustainability of school libraries in the context of today's society and its new challenges. O principal objetivo desta comunicação é apresentar o trabalho do Programa Rede de Bibliotecas Escolares (PRBE) no estabelecimento de projetos e parcerias alargadas que potenciam e consolidam o papel das bibliotecas na comunidade e ampliam as aprendizagens e o acesso dos alunos ao conhecimento para lá dos limites da escola. Neste contexto, são dados exemplos e descritos alguns dos projetos de cooperação desenvolvidos pelo Programa com diferentes parceiros, públicos e privados, relacionados com a educação dos alunos e a construção da cidadania nas áreas da leitura, informação, media, ciência, tecnologias digitais, saúde, inclusão, património e outras. Estes projetos e parcerias são um importante fator de fortalecimento, projeção e sustentabilidade das bibliotecas escolares no quadro da sociedade atual e dos seus novos desafios.

Geospatial Clustering for Balanced and Proximal Schools

Public school boundaries are redrawn from time to time to ensure effective functioning of school systems. This process, also called school redistricting, is non-trivial due to (1) the presence of multiple design criteria such as capacity utilization, proximity and travel time which are hard for planners to consider simultaneously, (2) the fixed locations of schools with widely differing capacities that need to be balanced, (3) the spatial nature of the data and the need to preserve contiguity in school zones, and (4) the difficulty in quantifying local factors that may arise. Motivated by these challenges and the intricacy of the process, we propose a geospatial clustering algorithm called GeoKmeans for assisting planners in designing school boundaries such that students are assigned to proximal schools while ensuring effective utilization of school capacities. The algorithm operates on polygonal geometries and connects them into geographically contiguous school boundaries while balancing problem-specific constraints. We evaluate our approach on real-world data of two rapidly growing school districts in the US. Results indicate the efficacy of our approach in designing boundaries. Additionally, a case study is included to demonstrate the potential of GeoKmeans to assist planners in drawing boundaries.

Gerrymandering educational opportunity

Gerrymandering is known best as a tool to manipulate boundaries for voting districts, but school districts have long used the same tool to manipulate school boundaries. The author used geospatial techniques — mapping various kinds of demographic data onto school boundaries — to examine public school attendance zones and their effect on students. The author’s research yielded several key insights. Like congressional districts, school zones are highly gerrymandered; the gerrymandering of school zones serves to worsen the already severe racial segregation of public schools, but affirmative gerrymandering can effectively increase diversity and reduce racial segregation.