The following visualizations all can be categorized as visualizations which examine the factors of educational attainment. For these specifically, we will look namely at the influence of income on scholastic achievement
This first visualization shows the most striking trend which has long been discussed and debated. This is the clearly strong correlation between income, and educational attainment.
The correlation coefficient, which is about .8 in this case, is close to a perfect correlation of 1. This means that the data is very nearly fit to a line with a constant slope, deviating very little from the trend of income to test scores. While this graph is very telling, it’s important to note that this does not show complete causation. Other factors often play roles in trends like these, and one way to show the significance of a specific factor is to discount the specific significance of others.
In light of this fact, this following visualization explores the impact of geography on test scores, and examines what impact, if any it would have on the first trend we examined.
Seeing as this data is less concrete, it is nearly difficult to unequivocally estimate fixed trends. This being said, to the naked eye, at least in the instance of the Greater Hartford Area, there appears to be little to no correlation between geography and scholastic achievement. The case could be made that areas of poverty and thus low test scores are more prevalent near the big city, but this information would not be sufficiently backed with our given data.
Now it’s important to recognize that though the data presented above is specific, plentiful, and convincing, it only deals with a confined area of Connecticut. Who’s to say that these trends wouldn’t look completely different elsewhere in the nation?
This final visualization looks at a more widespread measure of scholastic aptitude, which is the SAT.
This visualization shows a similar trend, with all three areas of the SAT having the top socioeconomic group score more than 100 points higher than the bottom socioeconomic group.
The above visualizations have given an inside look as to the ability data visualizations have, and how they can be an enhancement to any presentation.
I hope you all enjoyed this!