This story map provided a detailed explanation of school access and race in Omaha. The project established the history of redlining and white flight, which created a form of unofficial segregation in schools, especially in North and South Omaha. It also explored how private schools enabled parents to avoid placing their children in integrated schools until it was declared unconstitutional in 1976. Finally, the story map delineated different eras in Omaha, such as when integration was ordered and some students were bussed to schools outside of their neighborhoods in an attempt to correct racial imbalance and also after mandatory integration ended in 1999.
This story map had many strengths. At the beginning, it acknowledged the limits of data collection, which is important to understand, and the timeline that was included allowed me to understand the different eras that the story map would discuss. Throughout, there was also a nice inclusion of brief videos that discussed topics such as the difficulties of desegregating after the Brown v. Board of Education decision as well as an explanation of Runyon v. McCrary. The maps themselves were generally clear and effective. Plus, in particular, it is important to note that the maps that referred to different races were made in an ethical manner by not using colors like white and black to represent them.
Although effective, there are still some areas where the story map could be improved. For example, in the introduction, I did not find a clear thesis statement or a specific historical question that the story map addressed. Although the story map presents a strong argument for the intersection between race and schools in Omaha, it seems that a thesis statement that presents a claim about this topic is present in the conclusion. Another area of improvement is in the maps themselves. I think that a few of the maps could have been layered together to create a stronger argument. For instance, using the choropleth of race in Omaha with a map of top and bottom performing schools could have more effectively conveyed the argument that schools with worse performance rates are in areas with that have larger populations of African Americans. Moreover, it would also be helpful to see separate maps for elementary and high schools rather than have them included together.
Overall though, this was still an effective story map with well-supported claims.
Excellent feedback Erin.