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Last month, the UNM Center for Educational Policy Research (CEPR) received the Esri International User Conference’s Special Achievement Award in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for its research in mapping applications.
Amy Ballard, the senior policy analyst at CEPR, said the center received the award from the international supplier of GIS software for its work in geographically mapping various social problems in New Mexico.
“The work we presented is sort of just a presentation of a range of different things we have done at the center,” she said.
For example, Ballard said the team mapped the disparity between the number of pregnant teenagers and of daycare centers in Bernalillo County.
Ballard said CEPR’s research focuses on factors that affect the state’s population in many different respects.
“What we basically do is we take a lot of data that’s related to education, and careers, and poverty, and things that have a relation to student success,” she said. “We put them on maps because that helps people see where you have disparities across the city or the state.”
Jason Timm, a graduate assistant for CEPR, said the center uses public data to gather the information necessary for its research.
“We use a lot of census data. Most of the stuff we use is publicly available,” Timm said. “All of this stuff is available to everyone that has Internet access, but it’s not always very easy to get at. Availability and accessibility don’t always really align.”
Timm said collected data is often used to identify disparities that exist between social problems and the resources used to address those problems.
The maps created by the CEPR team have directly affected lawmaking in New Mexico, Ballard said.
CEPR presented data to legislators in March involving various aspects of early childhood life in the state to help pass and develop framework for the Home Visiting Accountability Act, which required New Mexico’s Children Youth and Families Department to enforce “standard-based” home visiting programs for families with new babies or young children in the state, she said. Ballard said the team has worked with other organizations as well.
“We do a lot of work with foundations, who give money to folks, to do work to try to help them understand how to best use their resources in New Mexico,” she said.
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While the team works with legislators and foundations, Timm said it also offers data to the public so that voters can make decisions based on the information it provides.
“The maps are to sort of direct where the state is going to subsequently invest money to develop resources,” Timm said. “I mean there are a lot of people out in the community who probably know a bit more about what’s going on. We can provide them with the information, and they can use that information to decide what to do as a community.”
Despite receiving two previous Esri awards for her prior research, Ballard said this year’s award is especially important to her because it recognizes the work that CEPR has done.
“It’s a recognition that — among the many folks who use this software — they appreciate what we’re doing,” she said.
