This article discusses the Mapping CSAP (Colorado Student Achievement Program) project, an extension of a grant-funded programme that sought to show the importance of a geographic perspective on public policy decision-making at the state level. In this programme, high school students were asked to grapple with current state issues in Colorado, such as development, water quality and availability, and land use policies. They were asked to use a geographic perspective and related tools to analyse relevant issues and then present their findings to community members. While this programme was very successful in one secondary school, the programme leaders felt that in order to convey the importance of geography to education policy makers and the public, it was critical to use the power of geography to provide a new and unique perspective on an issue that the state has determined to be a priority in education--specifically school accountability and student assessment as measured by the CSAP tests. By using a geographic information systems (GIS) to "map" distribution of CSAP scores and then overlaying other relevant data, such as demographics, income, and other publicly available census data, patterns can be observed in student achievement that may not be obvious by simply looking at the scores in tabular form. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)