Sources & definitions
What every number means, where each source came from, and how it is licensed.
Independent analysis by a PPS parent, not an official Portland Public Schools product. Confirm anything that matters against PPS's own materials: PPS rightsizing scenarios and October 6, 2026 Board of Education meeting materials (BoardBook). Built with AI, directed by a PPS parent (how).
For every document, dataset and tool behind the site, with links, see How we did this.
Every number in the project has a definition, a source and a link. Terms in the definitions list can be linked to directly, for example sources.html#def-walk-distance.
Contents
Definitions
Source: DEFINITIONS.md
Jump to a term:
- Neighborhood kids
- Program students
- Basis year
- Walk distance
- Average walk
- Within ½ / 1 / 1½ / 2 miles
- Past busing distance
- Size target (floor)
- Ceiling
- At target
- Utilization
- Schools at target, year by year
- Durable option (design goal)
- Baseline
- Kids reassigned
- DLI kids moved
- Split feeder
- Kids of color share
- Segregation (dissimilarity) index
- Within 15 points
- PPS A / PPS B (PPS's Scenarios A and B, official map)
- Earlier model
- Current model
Independent, best-effort analysis by a PPS parent, not an official PPS product. Confirm anything that matters against PPS's own materials.
What every number in this project means. The code that computes each one is named so you can check it.
Who is counted
- Neighborhood kids. Children who live in an area and attend its neighborhood program, estimated per 2020 Census block. Block counts are split into grade bands (K-5, 6-8, 9-12) by age and calibrated so today's attendance areas reproduce 2025-26 neighborhood enrollment (ODE fall membership, PSU's neighborhood vs. DLI split). They are estimates, not student addresses. See
build/data/README.mdandbuild/data/backtest.md. - Program students. Dual Language Immersion (DLI) and focus-option students. They are counted at the building that hosts their program, not by where they live, and move with the program. Lent and Rigler's areas are whole-school Spanish DLI today, so their kids follow the program. Under PPS A and B, César Chávez has no neighborhood area; its neighborhood K-5 kids go to Rosa Parks (PPS Family Guides, p. 3).
- Basis year. The optimizer and its scorecards size everything on PSU's 2031-32 forecast, as PPS does. Each school area is scaled by PSU's own ratio for that area. The first map pages use the earlier model on a roughly 2025-26 basis (see "Two model versions" below).
Distance
- Walk distance. The shortest walking route on OpenStreetMap streets and paths, from each Census block's center to the school, computed with OSRM's foot profile. Freeways, rail and the river are crossed only at real bridges and overpasses. Bike distance uses OSRM's bicycle profile.
- Average walk. Walk distance averaged over every kid at that level, weighted by kids per block.
- Within ½ / 1 / 1½ / 2 miles. Share of kids whose assigned school is that close on foot (the map also shows 2 miles at every level).
- Past busing distance. Kids whose walk is over the distance at which Oregon law (ORS 327.043) and PPS's transportation guidelines provide a bus: more than 1 mile for K-5, more than 1.5 miles for 6-8 and 9-12. For high school we ignore PPS's extra TriMet-stop test, so this overstates yellow-bus riders there. The trade-offs table's "past the bus line" rows use this count for K-5 and 6-8 (
levels.<level>.kids_over_bus_thresholdin each scorecard).
Kids assigned to a farther school, past a closer one
A kid counts if their assigned school is at least 0.25 miles farther on foot than the nearest open school at their level. The quarter-mile margin keeps near-ties from counting.
One figure to quote. The site's figure is the current optimizer's scorecard value: levels.K-5.kids_past_closer_school in each plan's build/solver/out_v2/<plan>/scorecard.json (model v2, 2031-32 basis, 0.25 mile margin). PPS A = 1,970 kids at K-5 (PPS Status Quo 1,861; PPS B 2,144; Redrawn K-8 lines 1,285; Current best: fewer DLI moves, sustainable schools 793; Previous best: no program swaps 890; Earlier best: balanced middle schools and Boundary changes, same closures 932 each; Rebalanced PPS A 1,838; the what-if Close 2 focus options 1,001). Model v1 gave PPS A 1,997. Any other number you see for the same idea, such as 2,575 for PPS A, comes from the earlier model and is labeled as such where it appears (the archive pages and older letters).
Both model versions use the same rule. They differ in:
| Earlier model (first map pages, letters) | Current optimizer (scorecards) | |
|---|---|---|
| Kids counted | Earlier K-5 estimate, about 14,900, roughly 2025-26 | Recalibrated K-5 neighborhood kids, 2031-32 basis (fewer kids) |
| Walk distances | Public OSRM router, nearby schools only; straight line × 1.4 otherwise | Local OSRM, every block to every school |
| Which schools count as "closer" | Any open school | Open schools reachable without a new I-84 or Willamette crossing |
| PPS A (official lines) | 2,575 | 1,970 |
So the two PPS A figures measure the same idea on different populations and distance data; they should not be compared with each other or mixed in one table. Use the scorecard figure (1,970) for comparing options, and label anything else "earlier model".
School size
- Size target (floor). PPS's thresholds: K-5 more than 360, K-8 and 6-8 more than 500, 9-12 more than 1,100 (PPS scenario documents; our model counts a school exactly at the threshold as at target, which changes no counts; 360 and 500 trace to the state's Quality Education Model). Astor and Skyline, which PPS keeps as small K-8s in every scenario, are exempt in our model; PPS's Family Guides still list a more-than-500 goal for both.
- Ceiling. The building's functional capacity (PPS School Profiles 2025-26, captured second-hand; Jefferson 1,773 after modernization; the earlier model used the 2021 Long-Range Facility Plan). PPS publishes no upper size target.
- At target. A school's total (neighborhood kids plus program students it hosts) is at or above its floor and at or below its ceiling.
- Utilization. Total students ÷ functional capacity. PPS's family guides state an aim of 70-100%.
Durability
- Schools at target, year by year. Each school's size in each year from 2027-28 to 2035-36, following its own row in PSU's July 2026 forecast (Table 5.5), checked against its floor and capacity. 2027-28 to 2031-32 is the required window (PPS's own projection years, Family Guide p. 1); 2032-33 to 2035-36 are reported only. Nothing past 2035-36 is projected. It is a projection, not a forecast: boundaries are held fixed. (The earlier model v1 used one district-wide ratio to 2040-41.)
- Durable option (design goal). At every level and in every year 2027-28 to 2031-32, at least as many schools at target as PPS A.
Disruption
- Baseline. PPS Status Quo: PPS's own 2027-28 map with no closures, which keeps every school open. Every plan is compared with it. (Today's 2025-26 lines were archived on 2026-10-12; they differ from the baseline mainly at 9-12, where the Jefferson dual assignment ends.)
- Kids reassigned. Kids whose assigned school differs from PPS Status Quo (2027-28, no closures).
- DLI kids moved. Program students whose program changes building, split into "building closes" and "program moves."
- Split feeder. An elementary zone sending kids to more than one middle school (or a middle zone to more than one high school), counting a destination only if it gets at least 5% and at least 5 kids.
Diversity
- Kids of color share. Kids of color = Census 2020 under-18 population minus under-18 white alone, not Hispanic or Latino (tables P2 minus P4), by block (
pps-race.csv), applied to that block's neighborhood kids. Latino children of any race count as kids of color. District average: about 42.5% at K-5 (42.8% at 6-8, 42.6% at 9-12). On the map, Color by racial mix fills each school's area by this share compared with the district: blue is lower, orange is higher, darkest at 25 points or more away. It counts where kids live (2020 Census residents), not who is enrolled. - Segregation (dissimilarity) index. Half the sum, over schools, of the absolute difference between each school's share of all kids of color and its share of all white kids. 0 means every school matches the district mix; 1 means complete separation.
- Within 15 points. Schools whose kids-of-color share is within 15 percentage points of the district average.
PPS plan lines
- PPS A / PPS B (PPS's Scenarios A and B, official map). Lines traced from PPS's published 2027-28 attendance-area map PDFs (BoardBook), median error about 70 feet, assigned to Census blocks. The first map pages originally used a reconstruction (closing areas merged into receivers, split schools drawn halfway); that version is superseded.
Two model versions
- Earlier model (first map pages, walk tables, the "diversity challenge" figures and the first letters): K-5 only, 2020 Census blocks calibrated to 2024-25 school totals, public OSRM distances.
- Current model (optimizer, scorecards, dashboard, compare map v2 statistics for PPS plans): all three levels, recalibrated to 2025-26 neighborhood enrollment, PSU 2031-32 basis, local OSRM distances, official traced PPS lines.
Numbers from the two versions are not directly comparable.
Plan names
Plans were renamed on 2026-10-12 so names say what each plan does (again on 2026-10-14; on 2026-10-22 and again on 2026-10-27 a new plan became the current best, and the one before it the previous best). If you have an older figure, this is what it was called. Plans marked * are not on the site now (archived, dropped, paused or awaiting a decision); their names are listed so older figures can be traced.
| Plan | Earlier names |
|---|---|
| Today (2025-26 lines), archived 2026-10-12 * | Today |
| PPS Status Quo (2027-28, no closures) | PPS 2027-28 lines, no closures; PPS 2027-28, no closures; No changes (PPS Status Quo, 2027-28); No changes (PPS); Status Quo 2027-28; Status Quo |
| PPS A (PPS Scenario A) | PPS Scenario A; PPS plan A |
| PPS B (PPS Scenario B) | PPS Scenario B; PPS plan B |
| Shortest walks (at least PPS A's count of schools at target every year), dropped 2026-10-15 * | Shortest walks, A's count every year; Shortest walks that still last |
| Balanced: 19 at target every year * | Balanced: 19 schools last to 2040-41 |
| Balanced: 21 at target every year * | Balanced: 21 schools last to 2040-41 |
| Redrawn K-8 lines (PPS A's closures with K-5 and middle-school lines redrawn for walking; PPS high schools) | Redrawn walkable K-8 lines, PPS high schools (full name until 2026-10-14); Redrawn K-8, PPS HS (short name until 2026-10-14); Most schools at target, every year; Most schools that last to 2040-41; Option 1-durable; Option 1 (durable); Option 1 |
| Most at target, HS lines adjusted * | Most schools that last, HS lines adjusted |
| Most at target + small feeder fixes * | Most schools last + small feeder fixes |
| Most at target + medium feeder fixes * | Most schools last + medium feeder fixes |
| Most at target + large feeder fixes * | Most schools last + large feeder fixes |
| Current best: fewer DLI moves, sustainable schools (the current best example we modeled, since 2026-10-27: the previous best with three more immersion programs kept in their buildings, Clark Mandarin, Sitton Spanish and Ockley Green Spanish 6-8; only programs whose buildings close or that lose their grades move; middle-school lines re-solved) | |
| Previous best: no program swaps (the best example we modeled from 2026-10-22 to 2026-10-27: PPS A's closures with redrawn K-5 and middle-school lines and no program swaps, so immersion programs whose buildings stay open stay put; big-school relief (an elementary school over 450 kids gets a soft ceiling of 450, and moving kids off it costs less); the Skyline area stays at Lincoln) | Current best: fewer DLI moves, sustainable schools (2026-10-22 to 2026-10-27) |
| Earlier best: balanced middle schools (the best example we modeled from 2026-10-15 to 2026-10-22: PPS A's closures with redrawn K-5 and middle-school lines, middle-school minimum 460; MLK Jr Mandarin and Beaumont Spanish 6-8 stay in their buildings; the Skyline area stays at Lincoln) | Previous best: balanced middle schools (2026-10-22 to 2026-10-27); Boundary changes, balanced middle schools (until 2026-10-22); Balanced middle schools (short name until 2026-10-22); Boundary changes, smaller middle schools; Smaller middle schools |
| Boundary changes, same closures (the same elementary lines, middle-school minimum 500) | Same closures, better lines (until 2026-10-14); Redrawn K-8, MLK Jr + Beaumont DLI stay; Redrawn K-8, 2 DLI stay; Immersion programs stay put; Immersion stays put; Option 2 |
| Close 2 focus options (Winterhaven, da Vinci), a what-if | Option 3a; Focus schools meet the size rule |
| Close 2 focus options, 1 more school open * | Option 3b; Focus schools sized, one more school open |
| Rebalanced PPS A | Rebalanced PPS A: every school in range (until 2026-10-15); Fewest moves, every school in range (until 2026-10-14); Fewest moves; Fewest moves, in range; Fewest kids moved; Option 4; "fewest moves" |
| Solver picks closures, built to last * | Option 5 |
| Shortest walks, sized for 2031-32 only * | Option 1 (2031-only); Option 1 |
The first-generation pages (no longer on the site; their files stay in the repo) used "Walk redraw A/B" and "Walk + diversity A" on an earlier model; those are not the same plans.
Built with AI: the research, data work, modeling and writing were done by AI (Claude, from Anthropic), directed and guided by Paul Frazier, a PPS parent. Best effort; it will have errors.
Sources, licenses and attribution
Source: SOURCES.md
- Portland Public Schools (linked; text copies for checking)
- Enrollment and forecasts
- Census and geography
- Street network and routing
- Software and fonts
- News coverage cited in the research notes
- Reports by other organizations (public; linked and credited)
- Other PPS material we archived
- Context
- Related community work
- Every link
- Inferred and second-hand figures
This is an independent, best-effort analysis by a PPS parent, not an official Portland Public Schools product. Confirm anything that matters against PPS's own materials.
Portland Public Schools (linked; text copies for checking)
The analysis cites and links each PPS document. The original PDFs are not redistributed here; plain-text copies of the documents we cite are kept in build/pps-texts/, each with its original link, for accessibility and so readers can check every quote. Numbers transcribed from them (closure lists, projections, capacities, targets) are attributed in build/research/targets.md, build/data/README.md and build/data/scenarios.json.
| Document | Used for | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Rightsizing scenarios site (overview + four regional PDFs, Oct 2026) | Scenario A/B closures, receivers, K-8 conversions, DLI/program moves | https://www.pps.net/about/portland-public-schools-information/rightsize/scenarios |
| October 6, 2026 Board of Education meeting materials: "Rightsizing Update: Scenario Release" memo and the 2027-28 attendance-area map PDFs (Status Quo / A / B x K-5 / 6-8 / 9-12) | Digitized scenario boundaries (build/data/scenario_maps/) | BoardBook, org 915, Oct 6, 2026 Regular Meeting (item 8, Update: Rightsizing): https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/915?meeting=769955 (meeting ID taken from the source_url in build/pps-texts/boardbook-2026-10/boardbook-10-06-26-agenda.md; all PPS materials for the org: https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Organization/915 ). Map files 14505794-14505805, each at meetings.boardbook.org under Documents/DownloadPDF/<id>?org=915 |
| Per-school Family Guides (82 PDFs) | PPS's own 2027-28 to 2031-32 projections per school under No change / A / B | https://www.pps.net/about/portland-public-schools-information/rightsize/how-could-your-school-be-impacted |
| Board decks, memos, Resolution 7307, TLE focus-options deck, equity audit | Size thresholds (360 / 500 / 1,100), KPIs, DLI and focus-option rules | Listed with links on the How we did this page (from build/research/how_we_did_this.md), with text copies in build/pps-texts/ |
| PPS School Profiles 2025-26 (Power BI report) | Building functional capacities in the current model (build/data/v2/capacity_2025_26.csv); Jefferson set to 1,773 after modernization (Sept 15, 2026 board deck, slide 21) | https://www.pps.net/departments/dataaccountability/data-and-accountability/data-strategy-and-insights/internal-school-profiles . Second-hand: captured by the pps-dli-explorer project's snapshots, archived in build/pps-texts/school-profiles-2025-26/; PPS's own profiles are the authority |
| Long-Range Facility Plan 2021, Vol 1 | Building functional capacities in the earlier model (v1) | https://www.pps.net/fs/resource-manager/view/84245cbd-4298-4803-8ba9-d26fb13a9c7a |
| High School Feeder Patterns | Current feeders, DLI pathways | https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1790894228/ppsnet/f2u6fbkysoabacyo484j/PPS_High_School_Feeder_Patterns_Eng.pdf (our text copy, build/pps-texts/high-school-feeder-patterns-en.md, was taken from another PPS-hosted copy; same title, not byte-compared) |
| Service Guidelines - Student Transportation (2024) | Bus-eligibility distances (1 mi K-5, 1.5 mi 6-8 and 9-12; high schoolers within a mile of a TriMet stop get no yellow bus, and neighborhood high schoolers get TriMet youth passes) | https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1751562292/ppsnet/thzskadliar1v7qds4yc/Service_Guidelines_Student_Transportation_2024.pdf |
| Enrollment Details for Language Immersion Schools, Oct 2025 | Cross-check of DLI strand counts | via the PPS Data Explorer project's pps-data repo (below) |
Enrollment and forecasts
| Source | Used for | Link / license |
|---|---|---|
| Portland State University Population Research Center, PPS Enrollment Forecasts 2026-27 to 2035-36 (July 2026): Table 5.5 (by school and program, to 2035-36; the basis for year-by-year sizes) and Table 5.2 (district medium forecast; used by the earlier model v1) | 2031-32 sizing basis, year-by-year school sizes 2027-28 to 2035-36, neighborhood vs. DLI split | Published by PPS: https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1785171463/ppsnet/ejdr22voeddvux8qwlob/PPS_Forecast_2026_27.pdf ; also at https://www.pps.net/fs/resource-manager/view/8f9d62cd-5056-4cdc-8435-4bcba8ba86b1 (the copy in our text archive; same report title, not byte-compared). Table 5.5 transcribed in build/research/sources/psu_forecast_table5_5_by_school_program.json. Credit: Population Research Center, Portland State University |
| Oregon Department of Education, Fall Membership 2025-26 (sheet "School 20252026", Portland SD 1J) | Enrollment by school and grade, the calibration target | https://www.oregon.gov/ode/reports-and-data/students/Pages/Student-Enrollment-Reports.aspx (Oregon public records) |
| NCES Common Core of Data (school directory 2024, enrollment) via the Urban Institute Education Data Portal | School points (build/routing/school_points.csv, ccd2024.json), first-generation enrollment model | https://educationdata.urban.org/ (Urban Institute Education Data Portal, data from NCES CCD; US federal public data). Cite as: Urban Institute, Education Data Portal (Version 0.x), CCD; https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/ |
Census and geography
| Source | Used for | Link / license |
|---|---|---|
| US Census Bureau, 2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics (DHC): P12 sex by age (blocks), PCT12 single year of age (tracts); 2020 P.L. 94-171 race (blocks); TIGER/Line 2020 blocks | Where school-age kids live (K-5 / 6-8 / 9-12 bands), race for the dissimilarity index, block geometry/centroids | https://api.census.gov/data/2020/dec/dhc , https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files.html . US government work, public domain. This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau |
City of Portland School_Boundaries feature service (PPS attendance cells, last edited 2025-11-03) | Today's K-5, 6-8 and 9-12 attendance areas (build/data/boundaries/) | https://services.arcgis.com/quVN97tn06YNGj9s/arcgis/rest/services/School_Boundaries/FeatureServer/0 . City of Portland open data; see the City's Open Data terms at https://www.portland.gov/ (attribution: City of Portland) |
| pps-data (the PPS Data Explorer project's repo, commit 80ec323, 2026-10-05) | Compiled PPS school list, LRFP 2021 capacities (earlier model), ODE/PSU/immersion files, board-meeting files | https://github.com/meub/pps-data . Code MIT-licensed; it redistributes public PPS/ODE data. Not copied here; fetched by scripts/fetch_raw.py |
Street network and routing
| Source | Used for | License |
|---|---|---|
| OpenStreetMap (Geofabrik Oregon extract, clipped to Portland) | Walk and bike distance matrices (build/routing/*_miles.parquet, validation_pairs.csv), street lines and street-name labels on the map pages, street-following boundaries | (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0: https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright . The derived distance matrices and street layers in this repo are offered under the ODbL |
OSRM (Open Source Routing Machine, osrm/osrm-backend Docker image, foot and bicycle profiles) | Local routing engine that computed the matrices | BSD 2-Clause, https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend |
FOSSGIS routing.openstreetmap.de public OSRM foot router | Walk distances in the first-generation model (cowork/; those pages are kept offline) | Service by FOSSGIS e.V.; data (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL |
Software and fonts
| Item | License |
|---|---|
Overpass and Overpass Mono fonts (Google Fonts), latin subsets embedded in pages/map.html and in build/map/fonts/; loaded from Google Fonts by the other pages | SIL Open Font License 1.1, Copyright 2016 The Overpass Project Authors. Full text: fonts/OFL.txt |
| Google OR-Tools (CP-SAT) | Apache 2.0 |
| pandas, NumPy, SciPy, Shapely, GeoPandas, pyproj, pyogrio, pyarrow, pdfplumber, openpyxl, requests | BSD / MIT / Apache 2.0 (see each package) |
| osmium-tool, mapshaper | GPL-3.0 / MPL-2.0 (used as command-line tools; not redistributed) |
News coverage cited in the research notes
OPB (Oct 5 2026), KATU, Willamette Week: linked inline in build/research/targets.md; quoted briefly for context only.
Reports by other organizations (public; linked and credited)
These public reports are linked to their originals. Plain-text copies are kept in build/pps-texts/ so readers can check quotes, and each copy opens with its source link. Copyright stays with the authors.
| Report | Author | What we use it for | Original |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equity Audit Evaluation of PPS's Southeast Enrollment and Program Balancing Initiative (June 10, 2026), and its School-by-School Analysis | Dr. Terrance L. Green and Dr. Havala Hanson, for Portland Public Schools | The Lessons from SEGC page and the audit's size floors on Why these sizes | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gcq_2z1sc6yj90PJCsUc9yqrLfAVWxSz/view (school-by-school: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xKJXsjio70jEAndFTHpr1_9FF3dQptlY/view); also in PPS board materials: https://meetings.boardbook.org/Documents/FileViewerOrPublic/915?file=3997427 |
| 2024 PPS Seismic Assessments, All Schools, Version 1.0 (May 15, 2024) | Holmes (structural engineers), for Portland Public Schools | Read while comparing community projects that use its seismic cost estimates; no figures used on this site | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vN48MAzNDz1GvZ4pkSXRyAuiuNTWcnt7/view |
| Denver Schools Thrive Initiative annual report | Denver Public Schools | Background reading (from PPS's rightsizing presentations page); no figures used | https://meetings.boardbook.org/Documents/FileViewerOrPublic/915?file=3990455 |
| School Consolidation Advisory Guidance | Oregon PTA | Background reading (from PPS's rightsizing presentations page); no figures used | https://meetings.boardbook.org/Documents/FileViewerOrPublic/915?file=3991313 |
Other PPS material we archived
Since this list was first written, the text archive in build/pps-texts/ has grown. Each item has its source link in its front matter, and all are listed on the How we did this page:
- October 2026 BoardBook documents (
build/pps-texts/boardbook-2026-10/): the scenario release, maps, regional summaries, supplemental Q&A and enrollment summary. - Board meeting transcripts, timestamped. Used for research but not published here, because the speaker labels name individual board members, staff and public commenters.
- Transportation law and policy (
build/pps-texts/transportation/): ORS 327.033/327.043 and 332.405, OAR 581-023-0040, PPS policy 4.10.100-P and administrative directives 4.10.049-AD and 4.10.101-AD, the 2024 service guidelines. - PPS School Profiles 2025-26 snapshots (
build/pps-texts/school-profiles-2025-26/), second-hand (see above). - Focus-option students by catchment, 2025-26 (
build/pps-texts/focus-students-by-catchment-sheet-2025-26-public.md,build/data/v2/focus_by_catchment_2025_26_public.csv): a community spreadsheet, second-hand; used only for the Close 2 focus options what-if. Counts under 10 are masked in the public copies; the what-if used the full counts.
Context
- PPS family survey, "Why They Stay and Leave" summary report (Jan 6, 2026): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1inDzPET-xRxzR8xZhCssQNMGI2JwSRbO/view. Why families stay in or leave PPS; background for the neighborhood-school and walkability arguments.
- PPS scenario materials as text:
build/pps-texts/holds unofficial Markdown extractions of the Rightsizing scenarios pages and every linked document (overview, regional summaries, 82 Family Guides, feeder patterns, BoardBook presentations), each with its source link. Consult the originals.
Related community work
Other independent analyses we compared against (details and number checks in build/research/compare_resources.md):
| Resource | Notes | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Portland Public Schools Data Explorer | source repo, which this project also uses | https://ppsdata.info/ |
| PPS School Explorer | source repo | https://pps-explorer.codedaily.workers.dev/ |
| PPS Closure Commutes | https://chrisloer.github.io/pps-closures/ | |
| Right Size Portland | source repo | https://rightsizepdx.com/ |
| PPS Dual Language Immersion & Rightsizing | source repo | https://pps-dli-explorer.netlify.app/ |
Every link
RESOURCES.md lists every external link this project fetched or cites, grouped by site, with the project file that references it.
Inferred and second-hand figures
Some model inputs are not stated directly by PPS. They are flagged here so readers can weigh them:
- DLI follow shares (how many immersion students move with a relocated program: Lent ~0.80, Rigler ~0.83, Woodstock 0.84–0.93, Chávez ~0.89, Beaumont→Roseway ~0.90) are implied by PPS Family Guide enrollment projections, not stated by PPS. Derivation:
build/research/follow_rate/report.md; values used:build/data/v2/dli_follow.json. - An 80–84% follow rate that circulated in community discussion came from a community site, not PPS. It was used only as a cross-check and is not a model input.
- Where Winterhaven and da Vinci students live (Close 2 focus options what-if) comes from a community spreadsheet of focus students by catchment. Its first columns match PPS's October 2025 Enrollment Summary; the per-program columns' source isn't stated.
- 2025-26 school capacities were captured second-hand from snapshots of PPS school profiles (via the pps-dli-explorer project) and archived in
build/pps-texts/school-profiles-2025-26/; PPS's own profiles are the authority.
Built with AI: the research, data work, modeling and writing were done by AI (Claude, from Anthropic), directed and guided by Paul Frazier, a PPS parent. Best effort; it will have errors.
Resources pulled and cited
Source: RESOURCES.md
This list is generated by build/export/gen_resources.py.
Show all links (grouped by site)
Independent, best-effort analysis by a PPS parent, not an official PPS product. Confirm anything that matters against PPS's own materials.
See SOURCES.md for what each main source was used for and its license. This page lists every external link the project fetched or cites, grouped by site, with the project file that references it.
Context
| Resource | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| PPS family survey: "Why They Stay and Leave" summary report (Jan 6, 2026) | Why families stay in or leave PPS; context for the walkability and neighborhood-school arguments |
| PPS Rightsizing scenarios | Official Scenario A/B materials; text copies in build/pps-texts/ |
| PPS Board of Education meeting materials (BoardBook) | October 6, 2026 meeting materials and scenario maps |
All links (192)
api.census.gov
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://api.census.gov/data/2020/dec/dhc | SOURCES.md |
apps.oregonlegislature.gov
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://apps.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2023R1/Downloads/CommitteeMeetingDocument/274502 | build/research/targets.md |
blog.trimet.org
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://blog.trimet.org/2025/08/20/trimet-101-how-to-get-around-as-a-student/ | build/research/targets.md |
census.gov
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files.html | SOURCES.md |
chrisloer.github.io
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://chrisloer.github.io/pps-closures/ | build/research/compare_resources.md |
docs.google.com
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cb41ScRyaNDeOwDU7FgpcrxPknkgKqY57vesZi8i-_8/edit?usp=drive_link | build/pps-texts/README.md |
| https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cb41ScRyaNDeOwDU7FgpcrxPknkgKqY57vesZi8i-_8/export/pdf | build/pps-texts/boardbook-september-8-presentation-google-slides.md |
| https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GpJys41_603Yo96vqfrCCZDmPTjyR3b576Q8iMOziWg/edit | build/pps-texts/focus-students-by-catchment-sheet-2025-26.md |
drive.google.com
educationdata.urban.org
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://educationdata.urban.org/ | SOURCES.md |
felt.com
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://felt.com/map/PPS-closures-travel-time-workbench-c6as0xMdQ3utb9AoiMhEBcC | build/research/compare_resources.md |
| https://felt.com/map/PPS-school-closures-travel-time-impact-eRA1FAMvSHSebm5FQg9AcNA | build/research/compare_resources.md |
github.com
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend | SOURCES.md |
| https://github.com/browniefed/pps-explorer | build/research/compare_resources.md |
| https://github.com/jminnier/pps-dli-explorer | build/research/compare_resources.md |
| https://github.com/meub/pps-data | build/research/compare_resources.md |
| https://github.com/southie/ppsrightsize | build/research/compare_resources.md |
katu.com
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://katu.com/news/local/portland-public-schools-proposes-closing-up-to-14-schools-amid-declining-enrollment | build/research/targets.md |
meetings.boardbook.org
nces.ed.gov
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/ | SOURCES.md |
opb.org
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/05/portland-public-schools-closures-rightsizing/ | build/research/targets.md |
openstreetmap.org
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright | SOURCES.md |
oregon.gov
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://www.oregon.gov/ode/reports-and-data/students/Pages/Student-Enrollment-Reports.aspx | SOURCES.md |
oregon.public.law
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://oregon.public.law/rules/oar_581-023-0040 | build/research/targets.md |
oregonlegislature.gov
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors327.html | build/research/targets.md |
portland.gov
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://www.portland.gov/ | SOURCES.md |
pps-dli-explorer.netlify.app
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://pps-dli-explorer.netlify.app/ | build/research/compare_resources.md |
| https://pps-dli-explorer.netlify.app/history.html | build/research/compare_resources.md |
pps-explorer.codedaily.workers.dev
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://pps-explorer.codedaily.workers.dev/ | build/research/compare_resources.md |
| https://pps-explorer.codedaily.workers.dev/#s=sq&g=k5 | build/research/compare_resources.md |
pps.net
ppsdata.info
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://ppsdata.info/ | build/research/compare_resources.md |
| https://ppsdata.info/#section-methodology | build/research/compare_resources.md |
| https://ppsdata.info/data.json | build/research/compare_resources.md |
resources.finalsite.net
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1751562292/ppsnet/thzskadliar1v7qds4yc/Service_Guidelines_Student_Transportation_2024.pdf | build/research/targets.md |
| https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1785171463/ppsnet/ejdr22voeddvux8qwlob/PPS_Forecast_2026_27.pdf | build/research/targets.md |
| https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1790894228/ppsnet/f2u6fbkysoabacyo484j/PPS_High_School_Feeder_Patterns_Eng.pdf | build/research/targets.md |
rightsizepdx.com
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://rightsizepdx.com/ | build/research/compare_resources.md |
| https://rightsizepdx.com/rightsizing-scenario-explorer.html | build/research/compare_resources.md |
savepdxschools.org
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://savepdxschools.org/transcripts/ | build/pps-texts/README.md |
services.arcgis.com
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://services.arcgis.com/quVN97tn06YNGj9s/arcgis/rest/services/School_Boundaries/FeatureServer/0 | SOURCES.md |
view-awesome-table.com
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://view-awesome-table.com/-P3DWjCXVoIaFhxSyFlA/view/ | build/pps-texts/family-guide-astor.md |
wweek.com
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://www.wweek.com/news/schools/2025/12/10/enrollment-balancing-in-north-and-northeast-portland-shows-the-consequences-of-overbuilding-high-school-capacity/ | build/research/targets.md |
| https://www.wweek.com/news/schools/2026/04/15/pps-introduces-another-metric-to-inform-school-closures/ | build/research/targets.md |
youtu.be
| Link | Referenced in |
|---|---|
| https://youtu.be/uAf7l-ChjFo?t=15369 | build/research/targets.md |
| https://youtu.be/zOUH2Jq7Owo?t=5941 | build/solver/METHOD.md |
PPS text archive
Source: build/pps-texts/README.md
The project keeps plain-text copies of the PPS rightsizing scenario materials so figures can be searched and checked. The archive holds 122 Markdown files: 10 pps.net web pages and 112 PDFs (the scenarios overview, 4 regional summaries, 82 school Family Guides, 6 feeder-pattern translations, 2 SEGC reports, an MOU, 15 BoardBook documents and 1 Google Slides export). Each file has front matter with its source URL and the SHA-256 of the original, and the untouched originals are kept alongside. The text is an unofficial extraction. It may contain errors, and text inside images is not captured, so the original PDF or page is authoritative. The archive does not redistribute anything beyond what PPS posts publicly.
Data credits and licenses
Source: index.html, LICENSE, SOURCES.md
- PPS Data Explorer. The project’s pps-data repository (ppsdata.info) supplied the compiled PPS enrollment and immersion files this project uses, and the 2021 capacities the earlier model used. Building capacities in the current model come from PPS’s 2025-26 school profiles, as captured by the PPS Dual Language Immersion & Rightsizing project. These are public PPS and state figures that the project compiled.
- OpenStreetMap. Walk and bike distances and the street lines on the maps derive from OpenStreetMap data, © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0. Derived distance databases are offered under the ODbL.
- Code is under the MIT License. Analysis, documentation and results are under CC BY 4.0.
- Other data. US Census, NCES and Oregon Department of Education data are public-sector data. PPS documents are linked; their original PDFs are not redistributed. Plain-text copies of the ones we cite (the text archive above) are kept for accessibility and so readers can check quotes. Embedded Overpass fonts are under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
Full terms: LICENSE. © 2026 Paul Frazier.