Data-Driven Storytelling – Leah’s Blog

Media Project

Story Summary and Data Links

My story is about the poor reading scores of American students. Although the data shows that scores have dropped since Covid, they show much more than that. The data also shows that more than half of American children have been reading below grade level since the assessments began, in 1992. As my story develops, I focus on why reading scores are so low, who it impacts the most, and what our leaders are finally doing about it. Data Link: https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading/nation/scores/?grade=4

My Chosen Media

I chose to use ArcGIS Storymap to tell my story. This felt like the best media to use because it allows me to share charts and graphics, alongside text to explain and expand the story effectively.

Making the Media

I used my MacBook to create the media. ArcGis allowed me to have a free public account. Although it does not give access to every feature, it was more than enough for this project. I’ve used ArcGIS Storymap before for other projects, and I was a little excited to use it again. I found instructions about how to embed it into WordPress, and fortunately it worked!

I used Excel to create a few of the charts, using data from The Nation’s Report Card. Some of the data that I wanted was not downloadable. In these cases, I used exciting charts and gave attribution to the author.