Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Converting Data To Information
Converting Data To Information
Converting Data To Information
• Tell a story
Know Your Data
• Construct simple frequency distribution for
every variable
• Examine data distribution
• Identify “meaningful” indicator to
summarize
• N = number
• % = percentage
• Mean
Know Your Data
• Examine “indicator” for patterns across
subgroups within your sample
• Sex
• Race/Ethnicity
• Class level
• College of Enrollment
• Program participation/Non-participation
First Year Retention by Housing Status
Entering Class of 1995
100
90
80
70
60
50 No Housing
40 Housing
30
20
10
0
< 800 800 - 900 - 1000 - 1100 - 1200 - 1300 - 1400 - 1500 + Total
890 990 1090 1190 1290 1390 1490
SAT Category
Converting Data to Information -
Examples
First Year Attrition and the 4,5, and 6 Year Graduation Rates
by Entering Class 1985-1995
100
95
90
85
80
75
70
65 6 yr. graduation
60 5 yr. graduation
55
50
45
40
35
30 4 yr. graduation
25
20 1st yr. attrition
15
10
5
0
1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995
Year
Disciplined Community: Most People Respect the Rights of Others
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
57%All
Men-60%
Women-55%
Freshmen-61%
Sophomore-63%
Junior-52%
Senior-56%
White-53%
African-Am.-
43% Asian-Am.-61%
Interntl. -63%
Hispanic-63%
Converting Data to Information -
Examples
Mean SAT Total Test Score by Ethnic Group
Fall & Summer First Time in College Freshmen 1986 to 1995
1300
1250 White/Asian Am.
1200
1150 Hispanic
1100 African Am.
1050
1000
950
900
850
800
1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995
Converting Data to Information -
Examples
SAT Total Score Range s (Middle 50%) by Ethnicity for the
Ente ring Class of 1996
1400
1350
1300
1250
1200 SAT 25 percentile
1150 SAT 50 percentile
1100 SAT 75 percentile
1050
1000
950
900
White Black Asian Hispanic
Converting Data to Information -
Examples
Mean First Year Cumulative GPA by SAT Total Test Score Category by
Ethnicity for the Entering Classes of 1992-1994
All University -- White Versus Hispanic
4.00
3.50
3.00
2.50 White
2.00
1.50 Hispanic
1.00
0.50
0.00
Less 0800 to 0900 to 1000 to 1100 to 1200 to 1300 to 1400 to Total
than 0890 0990 1090 1190 1290 1390 1600 Group
800
The Extent to Which 35 Abilities and Skills Were Enhanced by the
Undergraduate Program (N=1775 Alumni)
Average Response (Scale of 1 to 5)
100 80 60 40 20 0 0 20 40 60 80 100