Data Analysis

For my two data sets, I chose to research the average starting salary for elementary school teachers and a college professor’s annual base salary, to compare the two. I wasn’t at all surprised by the amount of money made by elementary school teachers starting out. The majority of the state’s starting salaries averaged out between $30,000 and $45,000. The highest two states were New Jersey and D.C. at $51,000, while the lowest three states were Montana, Missouri, and Oklahoma at 30,000. I was pleasantly surprised that New Jersey and D.C paid the most, and it was understandable as D.C is the nation’s capital and New Jersey must be one of the wealthier states up north. I wasn’t surprised to see the three western states as being the lowest paid, as the Midwest is not one of the wealthiest parts of America. I chose to do a bar graph to display my data, and did not graph every state but a good majority of them, to see how the different states compared. It wouldn’t be bad idea to teach in Northern, VA where I live, as we are the richest county in America, although it is highly expensive to live here! Hopefully in the future of the United States, elementary teacher salaries are increased throughout the country, because teachers should earn a lot more money for the amount of work that they do.

Click on the link to see my graph: average salary for elementary teachers

http://www.nea.org/home/2016-2017-average-starting-teacher-salary.html

My next data set focuses on a college professor’s annual salary depending on the type of subject that he/she teaches. The highest paid professor to the least of my surprise was one who taught law, at $165,000. I’m sure professors at Harvard make a respectable amount of money, and also went through years of undergraduate and graduate school to get where they are. The lowest paid professors are ones who taught English and Music, at $88,000. I can see how music professors are not paid as much, as the arts are not appreciated too much at many universities, except schools like Julliard or Berkeley. I was also surprised that English was one of the lowest paid subject taught, when to me that it is one of the most important subjects. English is the basis of reading, writing, and speaking, and without it we couldn’t function. I decided to make a bar graph from my data because it displayed my data in a straightforward way, clearly showing the highest and lowest paid professors. Seeing this data makes me reconsider becoming an elementary school teacher; being a college professor is where it’s at! Of course there is a lot more schooling, but making $100,000+ a year plus tenure wouldn’t be a bad thing to have.

Click on the link to see my graph: average salary for college professors

https://www1.salary.com/College-Professor-Salary.html