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Educational Studies Visualizations. Income and Educational Achievement

Posted on Author Ben Peterson

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!

Visualizing Achievement in Hartford Schools

Posted on Author Marissa Block

Cohort data follows the same group of students from year to year in order to track their achievement gains and/or losses. This data tracks a group of students beginning in Grade 3 in 2007 until Grade 8 in 2012. Looking at the cohort of all Hartford students, the percentage at proficiency increases from Grade 5 to 6, but then gradually declines in Grade 7 and 8. In looking at all the schools, it seems as if the general trend is that percentage at proficiency peaks around Grade 6.

Another important takeaway from the graph is comparing magnet school performance to Hartford overall, and comparing Hartford residents of those magnet schools to the magnet school overall. In general, the magnet schools tend to be above the Hartford average. When comparing Hartford resident magnet school students to the rest of the magnet students at that school, a lower percentage of Hartford residents tend to meet proficiency. However, when comparing Hartford resident students of magnet schools to students of district schools, a higher percentage of magnet school students tend to meet proficiency.

The maps below offer a spatial distribution of the schools in Hartford by school zones. The schools are coded (red, yellow, or green) based on the percentage who met proficiency in 2013. The maps aim to answer the question, “Do certain zones have better school options than others?” The map of schools based on CMT proficiency seems to indicate that Zone 1 (top left) has the most school’s with higher achieving students. The CAPT is more difficult to interpret because it contains a small number of schools. The CAPT is taken during 10th grade, so the map only shows high schools. Based on the map, there does not appear to be very much middle ground between performance levels. Furthermore, in viewing the graph that tracks the progression of proficiency from 2007-2013, all the magnet high schools are above the Hartford average for every year between 2007-2013. All the district high schools are below the Hartford average, with the exception of Bulkeley in 2009 and 2010.

CMT Proficiency Map

CAPT Proficiency Map