Illustrating Extreme Weather Across U.S. School Districts Through Data Linking and Visualization

Abstract

Extreme weather is increasingly common and severe. Education system leaders need access to integrated data that link national weather and disaster information with data from their own state or district to inform decision-making around disaster preparedness and response. This brief demonstrates one way of integrating education, weather, and population data to estimate how extreme weather affected U.S. school districts over a decade. Through a variety of national maps, descriptive statistics, and vignettes, we use integrated data to illustrate how various types of extreme weather had widespread impacts on school districts. By spatially linking these data, we find that an overwhelming majority of school districts were impacted by extreme weather over 10 years. Moreover, different types of weather affected different areas of the country unequally. School system leaders must plan for the inevitability of disasters and strategically distribute resources. We discuss three key areas where states could use support: 1) integrating data for real-time monitoring and planning, 2) building capacity for data storytelling, and 3) identifying impacts on student outcomes.