Posts by hdcoadmin
Judging school performance
Sanjay Bhatt of The Seattle Times used achievement and growth data from Seattle Public Schools to examine “high-performing” schools. Bhatt explains: “I used Excel’s pivot table feature to do a neat 3 x 3 table that gave readers new insight on looking at test scores. I triangulated two different types of data — achievement and…
Read MoreCrime data shows drug arrests in blighted area
Bryan Chambers of The (Huntington, W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch used local crime data for a story about the city’s effort to clean up a blighted area. “Between September 2003 and May 2004 nearly 21 percent of the city
Read MoreDisparities in distribution of fed transportation money
Erica Werner of The Associated Press analyzed county-by-county spending in California contained in the recently-passed federal transportation bill, finding “vast disparities in how the money was doled out, and perhaps no contrast was more stark than between California’s two fastest-growing counties. Riverside County has five times as many people as Placer County. But residents of…
Read MoreLittle oversight of profitable charter school
The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Connie Langland and Dale Mezzacappa report on a charter school’s manager “who has turned Chester Community Charter School into a profitable, expanding business in the heart of the virtually bankrupt school district.” Vahan H. Gureghian’s Charter School Management Inc. has a 20-year contract with the school’s board of trustees that both have…
Read MoreRace a factor in Dallas jury selection
An investigation by Dallas Morning News reporters Steve McGonigle, Holly Becka, Jennifer LaFleur and Tim Wyatt found that prosecutors and defense attorneys in Dallas County exclude jurors on the basis of race, despite Supreme Court bans on discrimination in jury selection. The findings were based on an analysis of information from juror cards, transcripts of…
Read MoreDeadly force used to end car chases
Roma Khanna and Rosanna Ruiz of the Houston Chronicle analyzed police shootings to find that “Harris County sheriff’s deputies have turned to deadly force during car chases four times since 2002, killing one and wounding four … Among the people they pursued and shot were a man driving with his headlights off and another who…
Read MoreDay cares fall below standards
Lee Rood of The Des Moines Register checked state child care facility inspection records to find that “at least one in 10 licensed centers — including several newer programs — failed to meet several of the state’s minimum standards for health and safety during their last licensed renewals.” Many of the programs receive only sporadic…
Read MoreLow-income residents less likely to appear for jury duty
Hurst Laviana of The Wichita Eagle used local court records to show that “less than half of the Sedgwick County residents summoned report to the courthouse in any given week. And low-income residents — many of them minorities — are far less likely to report for jury duty than residents of white middle-class neighborhoods.” Poor…
Read MoreO.C. sheriff’s office falls short of averages
Tony Saavedra, Monica Rhor and Aldrin Brown of The Orange County Register analyzed eight statistical categories for Orange County’s police agencies and found wide disparities in way police prevent and solve crime. The categories analyzed included response times on emergency calls, the success rates for solving homicides and other violent crimes, officer-to-resident ratios and the…
Read MoreChlorine plant is top mercury polluter
Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette used EPA data and records to show that a chlorine-producing plant in Natrium is West Virginia’s single-largest air polluter, emitting more than 1,200 pounds of mercury into the air every year. Although much of the focus on mercury pollution centers on coal plants, chlorine producers are responsible for…
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