School Redistricting an Inclusive Process

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The need to redefine is as certain as taxes and death. After all, is not change the direct prelude to progress and betterment? How that change is carried out, however, is just as important, and sometimes even more so, especially when it involves children. No matter how lengthy of a process, school districts considering redistricting have an obligation to include all who are affected as this would bring more accuracy, permanence, and empowerment to the community facing a tough challenge. As districts around the nation face a crisis in school overcrowding, implementing a redistricting plan in order to spread the student population to less crowded schools is a strategy which must be carried out with as much accurate results as possible. Much of the data used as a basis for most redistricting of any kind comes in great part from the American Community Survey which is a complex piece of census information that experts say needs to be very carefully examined before drawing any conclusions or making any changes (The Impact of Redistricting). While some school districts are easier to redistrict usually depending on the size and the composition of the community, others are much harder such as the challenges faced by the city of Philadelphia a decade ago. However, haphazard redistricting can be solved with a careful analysis of interacting data and methods, as is the example of the Philadelphia school district. (Caro et al 838). This should obviously be a time-consuming process. Not to spend the time required to redistricting effectively could turn the effort into a temporary Band-Aid solution that might need to be readdressed in a short amount of time. I attended the Edison school district and while I was not affected by the process of redistricting, many were. In 2006, the district decided to redistrict to ease overcrowding in some schools. By all known

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