Working with Data
Source: http://assessment.tki.org.nz/Using-evidence-for-learning/Working-with-data
These webpages are for educators who want to be able to load or download data on to a spreadsheet, and use it for their own analysis.
They may want to go beyond the data reports from the digital assessment tools available, or from their student management systems, or analyse data from assessments which produce only raw data.
The topics in the section have advice on manipulating data on a spreadsheet to prepare it for analysis. There are basic instructions on how to clean, sort and move data, and how to make and read simple graphs.
Information on data reports from some assessment tools is available here .
Information on data reports from student management systems is available here .
Topics
Loading or downloading data onto a spreadsheet
There are several ways by which quantitative data in the form of scores can be entered into a spreadsheet. Data can be downloaded from a digital assessment tool or student management system.
Cleaning and formatting data
When working with data to analyse results and draw conclusions, it is essential that the data with which you are working is ‘clean’. This means that it is consistent, accurate and complete.
Creating your own simple graphs
Graphs (also called charts) play an important role in data analysis. A graphic representation can make the relationship between sets of data much easier to understand.
Disaggregating data
Student achievement data is often reported for whole populations (for example: cohorts, year levels, whole class). This is called aggregate data.
