Data for Public Education
Research, data tools, and web applications for Texas public education.
I founded Data for Public Education in 2024. I work with Texas AFT, Our Schools, Our Democracy, and other nonprofit clients on school finance, staffing, enrollment, and school closures. I handle the research, data collection, analysis, and software development.
Much of that work starts with teadata, my open-source Python library for Texas education data. It brings district and campus records together across sources and school years, so each project can reuse the collection, matching, and validation work.
DataForPublicEducation.com uses Django and PostgreSQL to provide district profiles, maps, research workspaces, and exports. teadata-mcp makes the same data available through tools for assistants and a React interface.
Recent work includes the quantitative analysis for Facing Facts: Charter Schools in Texas, CharterCostTracker, and HB 2 support-staff raise scenarios for 1,179 Texas school systems. For the pay analysis, I also produced 35 customized PDFs for local union leaders.
Browse the research and datasets.
From a research question to a working tool
A project might start with a question about staffing in a group of schools. I use teadata to join campus records, check the reporting years and identifiers, and produce a table the client can review. The same data model supports the profiles, maps, and exports on Data for Public Education.
The campus example shows that connection using a published workbook: the Python library prepares the records, and a small web interface lets readers explore them.