Excel Data Analysis Toolkit

In this activity I visited the National Center for Educational Statistics web site to obtain data about 4th grade reading levels in the United States. I transferred this data into an Excel spreadsheet  so that I could easily manipulate the data. I did have to install the Data Analysis Tool Pack in Excel. With this Tool Pack I was able to quickly have Excel show me a Descriptive Statistic Summary of the data. I placed this data in a 2nd sheet within my document. I also sorted the scores in Ascending order and created a skater chart.

I have always loved numbers and statistics and I think that Excel is a powerful tool for not only storing numbers but analyzing them as well. I used to teach Excel, so I am very familiar with the software. What I learned in this lesson was the information we placed into our Excel spreed sheet. I do a similar exercise on my own downloading data from the VA Department of Education. The summary of the Total Score Descriptive Statistics was as follows:

I also made a chart of the scores in ascending order and highlighted my state, Virginia. Relative to other states Virginia is in the top of the range. The average reading scale score for the nation as a whole was 220. Virginia's score was a 226, which meant the state ranked 9th in the nation. I was surprised. I have always considered the states in the North East to rank the highest in the nation for education, and they do. But I was pleasantly surprised to see the Virginia was right there with them. Another interesting note about these numbers, is that no matter what state you looked at, girls outscored boys. I was not surprised. I believe that public schools have become VERY female oriented over the last 20 years, to the detriment of the boys.

The NETS-T standard that applied to this lesson was to engage in profession growth using technology. We were able to view current research on the web and take that data into Excel to manipulate and evaluate.  The internet makes this an easy task to do on a regular basis.