Managing a school district effectively requires both a geographic perspective and geographic tools. Geographic information ranges in scale from the community and its characteristics to the microgeography of a school and its components. Schools must be well informed and prepared to successfully serve their communities, which are continually shifting. The demographics of a school district are fluid, often changing in population size, composition, and distribution. These shifts mean dealing with districtwide changes and a need for efficient management.

GIS is invaluable to guide planning, decision making, and reporting for tasks that involve management, including creating maps of school facilities, geocoding students by residential location, designing attendance boundaries, analyzing school facility capabilities, and other critical aspects of a successful district. Many districts also use GIS processes and other information technologies that integrate data into an innovative format and distribute information to the public, which are particularly critical to meet the demands of recent education initiatives.

For more information about the role of GIS technology in school management, visit www.esri.com/k-12.