October 2005  

The EconData.Net Monthly Newsletter

SITE OF THE MONTH:  Education-The State We're In

Detailed State-by-State Narrative Reports on Educational Issues
October's Site of the Month continues our "Back to School" theme at EconData.Net. If you're at all interested in education issues, we recommend that you carefully study a series of new reports from the think tank Center for American Progress.  The reports synthesize a wide range of publicly available data from external sources to rank states from first to fiftieth in a series of measures of educational performance. The reports include an explanatory narrative and pay particular attention to racial and ethnic differences in performance and variations between state and national tests.

The site's content is available in two distinct parts.  You can download state-by-state reports by visiting a familiar clickable map interface or compare all 50 states on seven distinct measures of educational performance:  the achievement gap, early childhood education, the high school/college pipeline, higher education access, after school programs, standards and teacher qualifications.  : 
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=999991

Katrina:  Issues and the Aftermath

A Profile of the Crescent City
Our hearts go out to all those affected by this season's two devastating hurricanes.  In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, our friends at the Brookings Institution have pulled together a useful and compelling statistical portrait of the New Orleans region that helps provide a good context for understanding the damage wrought by that terrible storm.  The site provides links to studies of poverty, public housing, the location of jobs, middle class flight, African-American out-migration and other issues relevant to formulating policy for rebuilding the city.  
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/katrina.htm

And don't forget you can help play a role in easing the suffering and aiding the rebuilding, visit 
https://give.redcross.org/

Flood Damage Data

Flood Damage in the United States
Want comprehensive data on flood damage in the US over the past three-quarters of a century:  Look no further than this excellent website developed by the University Centers for Atmospheric Research.  They've re-estimated the National Weather Service's computations of flood loss data, and developed historically comparable measures of flood damage.  The site contains state level data from 1929 to 2003, and you can view estimates in current dollars, inflation-adjusted dollars or amounts per capita.  You also have the option of downloading the full data set in Excel format.  
http://www.flooddamagedata.org/states.html
 

Make Your Voice Heard

Calls for Comments on Federal Data Collection Efforts
Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program (Bureau of Labor Statistics) - comments due October 17, 2005 
BLS is soliciting comments concerning the proposed revision of the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program, which provides monthly estimates of the labor force, employment, unemployment, and the unemployment rate for more than 7,000 areas in the nation.  
http://www.dol.gov/bls/regs/fedreg/notices/2005016191.htm   

2006 American Housing Survey (AHS) - Metropolitan Sample (Department of Housing and Urban Development) - comments due October 21, 2005  
The 2006 American Housing Survey - Metropolitan Sample provides a periodic measure of the size and composition of the housing inventory in selected metropolitan areas. The survey collects data on subjects such as the amount and types of changes in the inventory, the physical condition of the inventory, the characteristics of the occupants, the persons eligible for and beneficiaries of assisted housing by race and ethnicity, and the number and characteristics of vacancies. 
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/05-16604.htm

 

NEW LINKS

Weather and Climate
October's new links highlight some weather and climate related sites that help us better understand the significance of events like Hurricane's Katrina and Rita.

• Extreme Weather
  National Center for Atmospheric Research. Economic impacts of extreme weather phenomena,
  including hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and lightning, by state.
  http://www.esig.ucar.edu/sourcebook/
  

• Climate Records
  Weather.com. Local data regarding average local weather conditions, including average temperatures,
  record temperatures, rainfall, and sunrise and sunset times.
  http://www.weather.com
  

• Climate Data, National Climatic Data Center, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
  Current and historical climate data, including temperature, precipitation, wind, and storms, by climate station. 
  http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ol/climate/climatedata.html