Graduation Rate Analysis
(part 1)
In this analysis I explore graduation and dropout rates among students in order to discover inequities among how schools serve their students. I use data from 2021 New York State Education statistics to discover which factors most impact student success. It is meant to help determine what areas our school systems may be able to create more equitable solutions toward student success.
Personally, this analysis bridges the gap between my career in Education and my transition into Data Analysis. Even now, I still hope we can bridge gaps within our education system, and personally want to stay involved in some way or another. Please enjoy this analysis!
Sorting all Factors
This visual lists and sorts all graduation rates for every tracked factor and sorts it from highest graduation rates to lowest. “All Students” is highlighted because it is meant to be a benchmark of equity that each rate can compare back to. If a group has a rate significantly lower that 84% then that factor may be considered an issue of concern and deserves further investigation.
Factors within Subgroups
This visual shows each factor sorted into subgroups that relate to students’ possible socioeconomic identities. Within each subgroup, each factor can compare the equity in student success to the other factors in its category. Also, the “Total” rates at the bottom of each subgroup are the average graduation rates of these subgroups, and can compare back to the rate of “All Students”, 84%, helping identify which areas require the greatest need for attention.
Recommendations
This visual groups the top-5 factors which account for student success and the bottom-5 factors. With my past professional experience in education, I used the top-5 factors to pull out important values for academic success which may be represented by such factors. I then used those “Highlighted Values” to create Key Recommendations for the bottom-5 factors and their subgroups, which called for more immediate attention in the proceeding visual.
(Disclaimer: the astricts on Asian and White students represent that those racial factors were not used to create the values below.)
More to explore…
While this analysis raises concerns and potential possibilities of improvement in schools around the country, there is much more left to explore. One area of improvement in this analysis is to use data from a longer time period so that groups’ progress over time can be discerned. Because this project was required within a tight schedule, a part two which investigates academic progress is posted additionally to this.
Dropout Rates
Additionally, this visual compares the dropout rates to the graduation rates from above. Because groups were ranked similarly between both graduation and dropout rates, this analysis proves there are commonalities between the two issues. However, the high increase in dropout rates of English Language Learners and Migrant students when given more time in school is a notable concern.