Tue/Thurs UT Data Analytics & Visualization Bootcamp Academy of Py Homework assignment Observable trends on the Academy of Py
- Bigger is not better! a. The performance difference between the smaller schools (under 1,000 students) and the larger schools (over 4,000 students) is significant.
b. When you also look at the total student experience (passing both the math and the reading tests) it is a significant data point that HALF of the students are not excelling in the larger schools.
- Money is not the answer! a. The performance difference between the schools with the largest per student spend vs the smallest per student spend is also significant.
b. This is actually an interesting view of the data. It mirrors the student class size as far as the student success. However, if you review across the summary you will note that the spend per student does not really corelate to the school’s number of students. Intuitively, you would think that an economy of scale for larger schools would be in play, but that does not prove out across the district.
- If the district is looking for the most strategic use of future tax funding, it would appear that the district should focus on 2 items. First, they should be trying to have smaller, cheaper schools. The second thing they should focus on is a year over year focus on improvement.
While the type of school appears to be significant (Charter School vs District), the student makeup of the Charter School is typically the smarter students who want a different school experience. Therefore, it does not make sense to drive for Charter Schools as an alternative growth plan.
As I mentioned earlier, there needs to be a focus on year over year improvement. If you look at the graphs across the various school’s grades, you will notice that there is no significant change at the school level from grade to grade in either math or reading.
The average change over the 4 years of High School is between .4% and 1.9% for reading and .4% and 2.6% for math. What this means is that no matter what school you attend, you are not significantly improving between your Freshman year and your Senior year. We MUST drive change there to make a difference.