Mapping ESL

In GIS, a technique for making interesting maps with data, researchers mark targeted neighborhoods with geographically referenced information. In the just finished fall semester, a group of Palomar GIS students created maps to illustrate where Palomar's new students live. The group's ESL point man was Michael Ford, who took the recognized home addresses of more than 200 credit ESL students new to the college and plotted them on a standard census blocks map to determine the density level of their distribution. As Mike's map above shows, the heaviest concentration of our new credit students is in the areas around the campus, both north and south of highway 78. It would be helpful to produce a similar map to show from which ZIP codes, neighborhoods, or even street blocks our noncredit students come from, as how an increased outreach effort might be accomplished should be an urgent priority of our department's growth planning.