3 replies to this topic

[dave tems]

Hi all,

I am not currently in post but have previously served as a HOD albeit in Citizenship. As such I had limited data analysis opportunities but am aware that as I apply for History jobs (which is my other specialism) it is possible I could get asked to look for trends, draw conclusions etc.. So, since I have limited experience in this area to say the least is there anything that anyone could recommend I might do/read/research to allow myself to succeed at interview and more importantly understand what I'm looking for and how I will know when I see it?

I would appreciate any help and although I have some knowledge of things like FFT data and RaiseOnline it is limited and confused at best.

Many thanks

Dave

Edited by dave tems, 27 September 2011 - 12:39 PM.

[JohnDClare]

In what context, Dave?

For yourself (e.g. exam results)?
Or with the children (e.g. census Data)?

[dave tems]

In what context, Dave?

For yourself (e.g. exam results)?
Or with the children (e.g. census Data)?

Apologies, for exam results/monitoring progress and the like

[JohnDClare]

Start by measuring each pupil against their target grade (be it FFT/RaiseOnline etc.)
Calculating the average for both will give you an overall-performance-of-the-department(HoD)/class(teacher).
I have a Headteacher friend who makes his staff do this manually - the writing of the two pieces of data against each child has a tremendous effect in alerting the teacher to the issues - by the time they have finished they very often not only have a clear impression of how they have done, but have begun to make decision about what they must do to improve!

After that, you can analyse in Excel.
Enter the basic data - name/result/target - into Excel.
Then sort by every conceivable designation -- male, female, MAT, less able, middling sort, SEN, SEN_SA, SEN_SA+, SEN_SA+5, LAC, by ethnic group, by social group, by teacher, etc. etc. Take the avergae for each sub-group and compare it to the overall average for the whole group, and you will get a measure of how well you are doing with each sub-group.
For an individual subject/teacher, this is more than sufficient (but make sure your school thinks so too).

Where I was wanting to see if there is a correlation between two sets of figures, I used Pearson's Correlation Ceofficient, which is just GREAT!!!!

Can I recommend:
Frances Clegg, Simple Statistics - A course book for the social sciences (CUP, 1990) 0-521-28802-9
and
Bruce W Tuckman, Conducting Educational Research (Harcourt Brace, 1994) 0-15-500987-7