by admin on August 4, 2011 at 1:44PM
Two out of three students in the United States are not proficient in geography, according to a recent article in the New York Times. In fact, testing done by the National Assessment of Educational Progress found that only 27% of eighth graders have an adequate grasp of eighth grade level geography. And age-appropriate proficiency dropped to 20% by high school.
These shocking statistics underline what parents around the country already know. Access to a high quality education is not a given. Ensuring children get one requires shrewd decision making on behalf of parents. This is never truer than when families find themselves re-locating to a new home, whether in the next town over or across the country.
Until recently, evaluating school options when searching for real estate was a frustrating and time-intensive task. Which is why it is encouraging to see companies like Estately (see last week’s blog post) leveraging Maponics School Boundaries to develop school comparison tools. Tools like these let home buyers quickly weigh school options (including GreatSchools ranking) relative to property locations. This empowers parents to make the wisest choices for their children’s future.
by Johanna Hunter, Product Manger on July 29, 2011 at 3:47PM
Mark Friend, VP of Marketing and Sales, reports exciting news from the Inman Conference in San Francisco where one of our innovative Real Estate customers, Estately, announced a new mapping tool on their website. This tool uses Maponics School Boundaries enabling home buyers to search for properties that fall within a particular school’s attendance zone. In addition to mapping school locations and boundaries in relationship to properties, users can also access information on individual schools including school type, grades served, student enrollment, and GreatSchools ranking. Estately has addressed home buyers demand for information beyond a property’s features. Parents consistently rate schools as a top factor in choosing where to live, and now they can quickly see school options relative to property locations allowing them to make more informed purchasing decisions.
The image below shows homes that fall within the school attendance zone for Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington.
In addition to school boundaries, Maponics also offers neighborhood, subdivision, and ZIP Code boundaries that are ideal for Real Estate and local search sites. Read our announcement this week on the expansion of our neighborhood and subdivision boundaries to more than 300,000 here.
Interested in learning more? Contact us today at info@maponics.com or call 1-800-762-5158
