Last December, the Urban Institute launched “Our Changing City,” an interactive series designed to help anyone with an interest in DC explore 10 years of dynamic growth, 2000 through 2010.

Chapter One covered demographics. We used data, narrative, and maps—lots of maps—to provide a bird’s eye view of how the city transformed after gaining nearly 30,000 new residents—its first population increase in 50 years.

Today, we turn our attention and tools to the educational landscape. New families are changing DC’s schools, driving the first increase in public school enrollment since the 1960s.

In this chapter, we highlight the choices tens of thousands of families are making—traditional public schools versus charters, staying within a school catchment area or traveling beyond it—as the student population grows and demand for K-12 education increases.

Interested in learning more about how education in DC has evolved? Explore the schools chapter of Our Changing City, an interactive web feature that uses data to tell the story of change in the District of Columbia.