Mapping Parent-Teacher Teams

Paraprofessionals in NYC Bring Community into the School from American Federation of Teachers on Vimeo.

The Neatline exhibit that accompanies this Omeka exhibit allows viewers to explore Parent-Teacher Teams and the social geography of paraprofessional programs more broadly. In the clip above, exhibit creator Nick Juravich and longtime paraprofessional educator Shelvy Young-Abrams (today the United Federation of Teachers Paraprofessional Chapter Chair) use these maps to discuss parent educators in New York City classrooms. 

While this interactive map shows the people and institutions that took part in Parent-Teacher Teams in relation to one another, the maps below depict demographic data about the neighborhoods in which this program took place. Viewed in relation to one another, they help to visualize the ways that this program helped reshape social and institutional geographies of public schooling in Harlem, and how they generated conversations, interactions, and engagement across lines of racial, class, and spatial inequality.  

Mapping Harlem and the Upper West Side, 1970

The following maps were made using the data visualization tool Social Explorer. They chart the racial, economic, and educational landscape of Harlem and the Upper West Side, using data from the 1970 US Census. 

Mapping Race: Orange dots represent 10 black residents, green dots represent 10 white residents.

Mapping Race and Language: Each red dot represents 10 residents of "Spanish origin or descent"

Mapping Income: The ligher the census tract, the lower the average family income in that tract. 

Mapping Unemployment: The darker the census tract, the higher the unemployment level in that tract.

Mapping educational attainment: Green dots represent residents with an elementary education, orange dots represent those with high school diplomas, and red dots represent those with college diplomas (each dot represents 10 persons).