My Reflections

For my data analysis, I decided to pull data from Farmville, Virginia. This interested me because Farmville is a small area that I do not know much about, even though I have attended Longwood University for three years now. And I am considering staying in Prince Edward county to teach, so I am interested in learning more about it.

The first data set I found, was the was how far the population of 25 years old and higher went in their education career. I decided to compile the data into a pie chart because I believe that is the easiest way to see the different sections that make up the whole body. The data is out of 8,643 people ages 25 and older, so you can easily see that the biggest chunk is a high school graduate. The smallest chunk is a professional degree. At first glance at this data, I thought the numbers would slowly go down. And while this is the case for some of the data, more people in this age range received a doctorate degree than a professional degree. I am not sure why that is, but it is interesting to note.

Link to data set one: https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=CF

Since we know now how far the population of 25 years and older took their education, I decided to find data on how much money they make in a 12 month span. This data is exactly how I guessed it would be. The people who have attained the higher education receive the most money. For example, people who received a graduate or professional degree, are making more than the people that only received a high school degree. However, I know this is not always the case so there were a few outliers. I was surprised on how close some of the numbers are. For example, a high school degree makes $4,000 less than some college or associates degree.

I decided to use a pie chart for both data sets because it is a clear way to see the differences between sections. It is also easier to see how valuable  a college degree is when the data is aligned together in two of the same type of charts.

Link to data set two: https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=CF

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U.S. News conducted research on figuring out if tests take away from the classroom due to the amount of test prep needed. In fact, “one 2012 study found that instructional quality declined with the rise of high stakes testing, especially in the weeks before the exam.”(usnews.com) In order to obtain that conclusion, researchers recorded teachers lessons weeks leading up to high stakes exams. and low stakes exams. According to the results, both situations had poor instruction. Essentially, the more difficult test did not help teachers improve their test prep. Another interesting finding from the videos was, “the quality gap between a teacher’s regular lessons and her test prep lessons was largest in a school district where the teaching quality was the highest.” (usnews.com) In the beginning of this study, tests were made more difficult to see if the test prep improved; it did not. However, not all of the videos contained poor test prep skills. Some of the best videos contained teachers providing cognitive review that included analogies for percentages in math. Therefore, instead of altering exams to help the teachers improve, teachers should just work together and share ideas. One of the best ways to succeed in something is to learn from the people around you.

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