The goal of this project is to explore data related to the Chicago Public School system, focusing on School Progress Reports. The end product of this project is a series of visualizations that answer a question or series of related questions.
To get started go to this data set and then click on Visualize -> Create Visualization.
From there spend some time (maybe 30 minutes) learning the interface. Can you:
- Make a scatter plot?
- Make a histogram?
- Apply a filter onto your plot?
- Add appropriate axis labels to one of your plots?
- Come up with a sentence or two that describes what the main takeaway of one of the previous plots is?
- Save or publish your plot (this requires creating an account).
For those interested in ranking the schools, after doing the above do the following:
- Inspect the data set and look for data columns you would use to rank schools. Make a list of these columns.
- Suggest ways to combine the columns into a ranking.
- Determine a way to open the data in a spreadsheet.
- Create a new column in the spreadsheet that's based on your ranking.
- Reevaluate what your next steps are!
For those who want a different project, once you're familiar with the data set, scan the below list of questions for one you would be interested in answering. When you find a question you would like to answer, do the following:
- Look for the column(s) of data in the data set that would help answer your question.
- Choose the type of plot you would like to make. For example, if you are looking at a relationship between two different things consider a scatter plot.
- Create the visualization using the above methods.
- Consider if you need to filter the data in any way.
- Save or publish the results.
Questions:
- How well do selective enrollment schools succeed in enrolling their student into selective college in comparison to IB schools?
- Does the school's ranking affect the students scores?
- Does the zip code have any affect on the performance of a student?
- How do immigrants’ high school success rate compare to an average student citizen?
- What gender, between boys and girls, tend to read more and does that lead to higher test scores on standardized tests?
- To what extent does the school type affect student performance?
- How does the student attendance affect ACT growth in 11th grade?
- Are 8th grade NWEA scores indicative of the success rate students will have in high school?
- How does the teachers attendance effect the overall growth of a students NWEA scores?
- Does Chicago Public Schools take into consideration the mental health of students when rating the school on its performance?
- How does the amount of student write-ups affect the schools overall performance?
- Is there a trend of students that increase/ grow from NWEA scores?
- What impact does collaboration among teachers have on CPS students?
- What impact may parental involvement have on a student's academic performance?
- Do SATs scores reflect what students really know?
- Does high school location affect college persistence?
- Why do schools promote healthy eating but still give junk food?
- Do standardized tests actually reflect on a student's academic ability?
- Does the amount of students in a classroom affect academic growth?