Population of Children in Public and Private Schools Data Set

 

The data that is displayed in this first image is a depiction of the population of students, who are aged three years and older, and are also enrolled in school in Colonial Heights, Virginia. The levels of school that are included in this data set are nursery school or preschool, kindergarten, elementary that includes first to fourth grade, elementary that includes fifth to sixth grade, high school, college or undergraduate, and graduate or professional school. The data is divided not only into the levels of schooling, but it is also divided into the two categories of public or private school as well.

Overall, there are 5,975 students in the town of Colonial Heights who are enrolled in some level of school. The majority of those 5,975 students, 5,441 to be exact, are enrolled in public schools while only 534 students are enrolled in private schools. Something that I found to be surprising was the fact that overall, public schools seemed to dominate in the amount of students enrolled, except for in the level of nursery school or preschool, where private schools had higher enrollments by around 24%.

I chose to display the school enrollment data in the form of a pie chart because it was a simple way to display the different representations of each part within the whole. There can also be a comparison of the pie charts in their individual sizes— the first pie chart, which represents the total population that is enrolled in school in Colonial Heights is the biggest pie chart because it contains all students regardless of whether they are enrolled in public or private school. The second and third pie charts, which represent public and private schools respectively, are broken down into the levels of school which students are enrolled in. These pie charts also vary in sizes, the public school pie chart being bigger, as it represents 5,441 students total, while the private school pie chart is only representative of 534 total students.

 

Level of Earnings Based on Educational Attainment Data Set

 

For the second set of data, the information is a depiction of ‘median earnings in the past 12 months for the population 25 years and older’ for those who live in Colonial Heights, Virginia, according to the United States Census Bureau. Originally, the information divided by and compared by gender as well. For the purpose of this data set, I chose to only include the combined earnings of both females and males. This bar graph includes the average earnings made by those who are considered to be: less than a high school graduate (I would assume this would be someone who dropped out of school), high school graduates and GED equivalencies, some college or associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, and graduate or professional degree.

Included in the chart information for this data set, first, there is a total estimate which is a mean representation of all of the earnings from each category of educational attainment, averaged together. None of the earnings that are depicted in this bar graph are lower than $20,000 or higher than $54,000 within the past 12 months. At $39,398, this estimation of wage earnings falls in between the educational attainment levels of ‘some college or associate’s degree’ and ‘bachelor’s degree’.  As it could be expected, the lowest level of education is also the level that it is reported to have the lowest earnings while the highest educational level is reported to have an income of the highest earnings.

The bar graph was used for this set of data because of it’s purpose is to display different sets of data in a similar way. On the X-axis of the chart, the educational attainments are depicted from the lowest level of attainment to the highest level of attainment. The amount of earnings is displayed on the Y-axis and also increases from $10,000 up to $60,000. The data from this data set is most easily shown on this bar graph because it shows a positive correlation between level of educational attainment and level of earnings.

Middle Schoolers Connect With History Every Day With The Times

When I was searching for a topic to write my blog post on, this article was not what I was expecting to come across, but was one that I was pleasantly surprised to find. As technology is rapidly increasing in our society, ‘hard copies’ of things such as books or news papers seem as though they are becoming less popular. Besides the fact that I prefer ‘hard copies’, there are some things that, as a Liberal Studies major, that I found within this article that interest me.

In terms of academics, reading is something that I find to be important and love to do as well. History and current events are also two things that are important to me.  By exposing her students to The New York Times, Joni-Jean Crivello is giving children a reason to become avid readers. Having her students read and discuss the paper on a daily basis is a wonderful way to keep her students informed and understanding of what is going on in the world around them. While the newspaper could be considered something ‘grown up’, being able to take the time to read and discuss articles in the paper, is a way for students to gain senses of both maturity and responsibility.