This special issue is dedicated to understanding how to best support positive educational outcomes for all students. While reading strategies, course design and methods, testing and assessment, and a variety of other factors are all integral to L2 reading outcomes, policies constructed at the federal, state, district, and school level play an important role in supporting, or failing to support, reading achievement. As Heath (1983) noted, literacy development takes place in context, and part of that context is defined by policy decisions. These policy decisions are often made based on limited data and limited understanding of the environments in which learning occurs. In this commentary, Elizabeth Thorne-Wallington suggests that Geographic Information Systems (GIS) research offers a particular advantage to policy stakeholders at all levels of educational systems, but that a lack of high-quality data about diverse learners limits the efficacy and availability of this research.