Assessing School Communities Using Google Street View: A Virtual Systematic Social Observation Approach

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Dana McCoy, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Terri Sabol, Northwestern University

Version:  View help for Version V2

Name File Type Size Last Modified
Read_me_first.docx application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document 42.5 KB 02/15/2022 10:16:AM
iSNAP_Analysis.do text/plain 23.1 KB 02/15/2022 09:43:AM
iSNAP_coder.dta application/x-stata-dta 78 KB 02/15/2022 10:09:AM

Project Citation: 

McCoy, Dana , and Sabol, Terri. Assessing School Communities Using Google Street View: A Virtual Systematic Social Observation Approach. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-02-15. https://doi.org/10.3886/E162621V2

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary Little research in education has focused on school neighborhoods. We employ a novel systematic social observation tool – the internet-based School Neighborhood Assessment Protocol (iSNAP) – within Google Street View to quantify the physical characteristics of 291 preschool communities in nine US cities. We find low to moderate correlations (r = -.03 to -.57) between iSNAP subscales and Census tract poverty, density, and crime, suggesting that the characteristics captured by the iSNAP are related to yet ultimately distinct from existing neighborhood structural measures. We find few positive associations between iSNAP community characteristics and 1,230 low-income preschoolers’ end-of-year outcomes. Specifically, resources for outdoor play (e.g., playgrounds, open fields) on school grounds predicted stronger child self-regulation skills, whereas global ratings of safety and care for both the school grounds and surrounding neighborhood predicted stronger approaches to learning skills. Indicators of physical order were not associated with child outcomes.
Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources United States Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences (R305A160013)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms school neighborhood; school quality; early childhood development; Google Street View; systematic social observation
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 2007 – 2009
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 2016 – 2018
Universe:  View help for Universe Low-income children in communities surrounding preschools in nine U.S. cities
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) observational data


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Published Versions

V2 [2022-02-15]

V1 [2022-02-15]

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