Interactive Map: Placing Political Learning in Context

The National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) provides more than 1,000 U.S. colleges and universities with tailored reports containing their students’ aggregate voter registration and voting rates. Assessing that data can be difficult, because political learning and behaviors like voting happen within specific contexts.

The Institute for Democracy & Higher Education has created an interactive map to help students, faculty, and institutional leaders make sense of key data that may help or hinder political engagement. By situating institutions of higher education within their geographical environment, users can start to make sense of how key variables like past youth voter turnout, percentage of eligible youth voters, political competitiveness, and facilitative elections laws; as well as key demographics like median household income, unemployment, median age, and racial diversity relate to voter turnout on campus. The map is designed as a learning tool to jumpstart classroom discussions, inform student group activities, and assist potential funders and national organizations in thinking about the diversity of environments that support political learning on campus. Users can even create their own maps and add new geographic layers to the existing map.

We are interested to know how this map is being used and welcome comments and feedback that can inform future development. Please contact idhe@tufts.edu with comments, ideas, or questions.

This interactive map was made possible through generous funding from the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation and the Foundation for Civic Leadership.