Blockwalking for "unregistered voters" in Harris County

Time is getting tight: October 9 is the deadline to register to vote ahead of the 2018 election. So despite the fact that its creation was a feat of patience and persistence and coding creativity, I shan't waste too much time introducing the content. 

This specific dataset covers those 198,256 single family homes in Harris County that do not have a registered voter at the address (according to public records, as of 8/23/18). You can download the zipped XLS here.

The addresses are listed by precinct. The addresses are separated out by state Senate district, and the crosswalk on the top tab will help you figure out which tab(s) you'll need for your purposes. These are the column headers and their definitions.

• precinct: Precinct where the address is located (there are 1012 in the county). I highly recommend the interactive map of precincts that I found while perusing the Harris County Voter Registrar website. See image below, or at the URL. 
• site_addr: The site's address: number, street, and unit number (sometimes).
• city,zip, streetName: Hopefully self-explanatory.
• propType: single family homes, as our team identified by various fields associated with the account in the Harris County Appraiser District database(s).
• saleDate: Date of the most recent sale of the property.
• ownerOccupied: Educated guess about whether the owner of the property lives at the address. Basically, whether the "mail-to" address on the HCAD file matches the location of the property site.
• RVhere: Is there a Registered Voter here? As of 8/23/18.
• hcad_account: HCAD account number (public record, from HCAD).
• tx_house: Texas legislative district associated with the precinct, as of 2018.
• tx_senate: Texas senate district associated with the precinct, as of 2018.
• us_house: US Congressional district associated with the precinct, as of 2018.

In closing, two helpful tips and two caveats:

• This file is too big for Google Sheets, so don't take it personally if you are having trouble opening it! Once you click the link above, click the "download" icon towards the top right of the screen and save it to your own computer. Then you should be able to unzip the file using your computer's already-installed software... and then open the XLSX using Excel or any other software (Apple has the "Numbers" program, or you could try "LibreOffice" if you're going the open-source route).
• YouTube has great tutorials for Excel users if you need more information about how to manipulate this file once it's been downloaded locally and unzipped.
• From my perspective, the act of voter registration is a non-partisan activity... so I have no problem putting this information on a public-facing page. If our political 'opponents' (whatever that even means these days) want to get folks registered too, I can't argue with that. 
• Finally, a quick reminder that it is a criminal offense to use voter registration information in connection with advertising or promoting commercial products or services. (See Tex. Elec. Code Ann. §18.009.) So while this is not voter registration information, please be responsible users of voter-related information data obtained from HCAD and HCTAX and VoteTexas.

Happy Canvassing and VDVR-ing!

Interactive precinct map, which I found thru the HCTax Assessor's website

This work (including the XLS) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Five Easy Steps: Voting in 2018 in Texas

This year has been tough for Houston. Voting should be easy. 

Lots of folks have moved since the November 2016 -- because of Harvey, or because of... well, everything. If you moved within the same county, your voter registration may need to be updated by FEBRUARY 20 in order to vote in the upcoming March 6 primary... and you can do that online! Here are the five easy steps to make sure everything will be ready to go to cast your vote.

Step 1. Find your current voter registration.

In Harris County, the tax assessor is in charge of voter registration. You can find out where the HCTA thinks you live by searching for your name here -- https://www.hctax.net/Voter/Search -- it looks like the screenshot below. (For other Texas counties, check here to see which office to contact for your voter registration info.)

Screenshot of search bar at https://www.hctax.net/Voter/Search

Step 2. Check that the address is correct... 

Once you've found your name in the voter registration database, click on the BLUE certificate number to pull up...

Screenshot from the search for "PR, L" -- with people's identifying info erased. It's already public online but hey, this stuff is sensitive and I get that. 

... on your current Voter Registration record (Step 3). 

... your very own (yellow) Voter Registration record! Ta-dah! If your address is correct, then you're done. Screenshot the names of the people who represent you so you know who to pester. I didn't show those names in the image, but I promise you -- it's there if you scroll down on your own certificate. If your address is not correct, then you'll need to update it!

Step 4. If necessary, go to the state website to update your address. 

Write down your Voter Unique ID (VUID) in the top left box of your Voter Registration Record. You'll also need your Texas driver license or voter ID card. With those in hand, head on over to the Secretary of State website --https://txapps.texas.gov/tolapp/sos/SOSACManager -- and click CONTINUE at the bottom of the page.

Screenshot from the TX Office of the Secretary of State website

Step 5. Enter the information from your documents, and click LOGIN. 

The form on the SOS website looks like this. You'll need two numbers from your photo ID, and also your VUID from the County website. And then follow the prompts after LOGIN to complete your update. 

All done! Don't you feel better? Now you can complain all you want about anybody in government, heehee. Because in a democracy, if you can vote and you don't vote... nobody has to take your opinion seriously. 

Postcard the Texas Electors: Before 12/15

Hey y'all! It's been a rough three weeks. The Postcard Avalanche campaign about Steve Bannon inspired me to take action in Texas.

There are 38 electors for the state of Texas, and I've identified about two dozen of them who live in counties that went for HRC. Since I live and vote in Texas, I want them to hear from me! I verified their mailing addresses through public records on government websites... and then I heard from other Texas voters that they might like to do the same, so I shared it all here.

These 23 electors' mailing addresses as found on public record on county assessor websites. Here's how to participate.

1(a). Decide who to contact: Read through the list here (or copy-paste http://bit.ly/2g8Z3oP). You might decide to just write to the folks in your part of Texas, or you may want to contact all of them.

1(b). Obtain postcards, and address them to some or all of the Electors identified. I found my postcards online, in drugstores (Walgreens/CVS, etc.) in tourist towns, and blank ones at craft stores.

2. In the message section, write one of these messages, or choose your own:

• Message 1: The Founding Fathers explained the purpose of the electoral college. It is not the role of the Electors to override the will of the people unless a blatantly unqualified candidate wins a majority of votes. (Federalist Paper No. 68, 1788)

• Message 2: DJT does not have the requisite qualifications to serve as President. DJT did not win a majority of votes. If DJT and his family do not COMPLETELY divest from his company, he will proudly violate the emoluments clause of the Constitution.

• Message 3: Fulfill your role as an Elector: REJECT Donald J. Trump!
• Message 4: Listen to your fellow Texas Elector, CHRISTOPHER SUPRUN! (added 12/5/16)

3(a). Sign your name and city (optional). I'm just writing my first name and city & zip code.

3(b). Feel really dang proud of yourself for speaking up (required!) :-)

4. Take a picture of your postcards that you can share on social media.

5. Affix a stamp - you can use a 35 cent postcard stamp, or a normal letter stamp

6. Drop them in the mail between DEC 1 and DEC 15

7. Tweet and Instagram and Facebook and share the heck out of your photo using the hashtags #notmypresident #postcardavalanche #TXelectors

NOTES:
First, If you are a Texas elector and you'd prefer I send my postcards to a different address that you use for your role as a public official, happy to oblige! What I've got is what was available thru ethical searching on government websites.

Second, there is also a public Facebook Event page. I haven't heard a need for a private event page.

Third: Personally, I am going to send each elector TWO or THREE postcards, with Message 1 arriving between 12/1 and 12/8, and with Message 2 arriving between 12/9 and 12/13, and the last arriving by 12/15... so they all arrive before the Electors meet in Austin on 12/19. You are welcome to do the same. But this definitely isn't a condition to take part! :)

Exciting news... Critical Race Studies in Education Association

This weekend I received one of those emails that makes a researcher's heart skip a beat:

This year the Critical Race Studies in Education Association (CRSEA) received a record number of proposals. Therefore, it is with great excitement that the CRSEA Program Chair Committee is pleased to inform you that your paper proposal, Parents, Teachers, and Title I: A CRT Analysis of Parent Engagement, has been accepted for the 2015 CRSEA Annual National Conference in Nashville, Tennessee May 27 – 29, 2015.

Needless to say, I jumped around like I had just won the lottery. So now I just have to figure out exactly what I will (and will not!) say. But it will be great to work on this important topic, and share my findings with other folks across the country who are thinking about race and schools.

In the meantime, I've had a couple requests to share the longer document(s) that will inform this presentation. I post the chapters here for all three of you that will be interested ;)


Chapter 1 : How Parent Engagement Has Been Understood
Chapter 2 : Parent Engagement as a Policy Strategy
Chapter 3 : Conflict and Sensemaking in the Parent-Teacher Relationship
Conclusion & Appendices : So where do we go from here?

Why does government data have to be so messy?!

In short, it doesn't.

This. So. Much. This. http://flowingdata.com/2014/06/10/how-to-make-government-data-sites-better/

Estimating Supply & Demand in PK4 Planning

As I have described earlier (here, and here), I am working on projection estimates for PK4 in MNPS. Given the limitations of a summer-only role and the many, many factors at play in the decisions, I do not know what role these estimates will ultimately play in the strategy around PK4 expansion. But I can at least feel confident that I am providing accurate and useful information around specific questions, namely: the (1) available supply and the (2) current unmet need for PK4 across the district and in each cluster, and (3) illustrate trends in each cluster’s distinct PK4 needs and assets. So! In the interest of sharing what I have learned thus far, here is a progress report of sorts.

Definitions:    I have already sought and obtained initial figures on each of these inputs, and am in the process of cleaning, re-organizing, and crunching the numbers so that I can pull them together in a meaningful way. 

1.     Demand = Number of students who applied for this year’s PK4 through MNPS, as organized by their zone of residence

2.     Need = Students who are projected to enroll in a MNPS zoned school for Kindergarten the following year (Proxy for PK4)

3.     Need Trend = Anticipated growth in Kindergarten enrollment over time, for each zoned school

4.     Public Supply, Total = PK4 slots currently available thru MNPS and Head Start, by cluster 

5.     Public Supply, EE = Public PK4 slots allocated exclusively for children receiving Exceptional Education services

6.     Private Supply = Slots currently provided by private entities, by cluster.

7.     Private "High-Quality" Supply = Slots that are provided by entities that are accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), or that are three-star providers as determined by the voluntary Star-Quality Child Care Program (determined by the TN Department of Human Services Child Care Services office).

8.     Accessibility = Characteristic of each school zone's residents, which indicates families' reliance on public transportation vs. private vehicles (aggregated at the census tract level, using the ACS package in R - about which I have a blog post under construction).

Assumptions:  Every child who attends a MNPS elementary for kindergarten is likely to consider enrolling in a MNPS PK4 classroom if it were available in their residential cluster. Therefore, it is appropriate to consider projected Kindergarten enrollment in AY1415 as an appropriate proxy for projected PK4 need in AY1314. 

Limitations:    (1) Analysis captures anticipated trends for zoned schools, rather than trends for schools of choice or specialty schools. (2) Although it is intended to reflect the reality that some parents will always choose to keep their 4-year-old at home or choose private providers rather than enroll them in public PK4, the distinction between Need and Demand seems a little bit fussy, and ultimately may not be useful. (3) This is a preliminary working construct of "high quality" and cannot, by definition, capture all the characteristics that make up a quality ECE experience. But we must start somewhere, and so we start with NAEYC and Three-Star.

Thoughts, questions, suggestions? Did I miss something really obvious? 

So where do we go from here? Parents and Teachers in Title I Schools

“Educators from any racial background can be successful with any group of students whe the educators have (or are willing to garner) the knowledge, attitudes, dispositions, and skills necessary to understand and to be responsive to their students’ social, instructional, and curriculum needs.” (Milner, 2010, p. 19)

In this paper⁽¹⁾ I have illustrated the many and subtle ways that discourse and policy around parent engagement can reproduce injustice in the classroom. The problems illuminated here – namely deficit discourse, colorblindness, cultural racism, availability bias – reside in multiple settings, both within American culture and within the policy infrastructure. I recognize that these problems were not created exclusively by policy, and they cannot be addressed exclusively through policy. There is no simple strategy for excising the roots of American racism in our public schools. These problems are not exclusively about racial ideology – they are also about how the country socially constructs poverty. In the words of one teacher, families in poverty “are effectively working miracles to present their children in clean clothes at the school door every day” – even when much of the American public has written them off (Jones, 2014).

Yet despite all this I remain hopeful. In my experiences working on parent engagement, teachers across all racial groups have found the process of making visible their own unexamined frames to be extremely valuable for their work with families in poverty, even if the process prompted some surprises and some self-reflection. Do I really believe, they asked themselves, that "All Parents Have Dreams for Their Children and Want the Best for Them? What led me to think otherwise? And was I wrong?" Making visible these frames is the first step in a process by which teachers can reframe families in an affirmative manner and diminish the sense of antagonism between school and family (Henderson et al., 2007b). This shows me that even within existing requirements and regulations, steps can be taken to move teachers and families in a positive direction. Here are four recommendations that could make a difference on these complex challenges: