Program Presence in Schools – An Interactive Application
In a previous post, we began to uncover some of the trends associated with the presence of instrumental programs in the United States. We looked at basic facts having to do with the total number of programs in each state, as well as the percentage of total schools that have programs. While this basic information is helpful and expository, more patterns can be discovered by looking at program presence in schools based on factors such as school grade level, school size, and the wealth of the community in which the schools exist. These patterns are extremely interesting, and provide excellent insight. To that end, MTD has created a simple interactive application which will allow you to uncover these patterns on your own.
*Please note – the interactive application below is best viewed on larger screens and may be difficult to interact with on mobile devices.*
Here are some of our key observations:
- When looking at schools of all grade levels, Texas has a relatively average number of programs. Now take away everything but 9-12 schools, and Texas becomes the leader for number of programs out of all of the states.
- When looking at schools in the highest income communities, you begin to notice the number of high income programs on the coasts (California and NY especially), but the presence of programs remains highest in the middle of the country.
- Program presence among schools with high enrollment (1000+) is highest in a very odd region (Montana, Dakotas, and Wyoming). This is a region that is not typically highlighted in program number or in the presence analysis. This is probably because there are not many schools with high enrollments in these states.
What patterns did you discover?
