ACS Data Users Group

I apologize if this is a simple question but I am quite new to the ACS. I want to be able to convert or at least reasonably approximate estimates for school districts using the estimates from another geography like Tracts or Block Groups. I wanted to know if there is a generally accepted way to do this because my initial thought was to just use something like the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk files to get the area of overlap between a school district and a tract then calculate that intersection as a percent of the total tract and multiply the tract estimate by that figure. Then sum up the results for all intersections.

I will add an image and a table to clarify. The school district is in red and the four tracts it intersects with are in blue.

Tract	Intersect %
39017011121	3.239%
39017011200	94.461%
39017011300	85.654%
39165031600	13.159%

My concern is an assumption of even distribution over the tract. Obviously block group or block data would reduce that problem but its not always available.

Also I'm not sure if I am trying to reinvent the wheel and someone here can tell me if there is a better way.

thank you,

You should know that school districts are a tabulated geography in the American Community Survey and the Geographies are an available geography in the Tiger Files. In other words you do not have to do this hard work, unless you want a different variable than the one in the ACS

Well it appears I was trying to reinvent the wheel.

The stats package I was using to pull data did not offer school districts as an option, and in my reading I did not notice it is a geography that is offered. In going to the fact finder I see that you are quite right.

Thank you for the speedy response. That will save me quite a bit of trouble.

You should know that school districts are a tabulated geography in the American Community Survey and the Geographies are an available geography in the Tiger Files. In other words you do not have to do this hard work, unless you want a different variable than the one in the ACS