Tableau Project Map of NC Achievement and SPG Data

The data that was used to publish this dashboard was pulled from the North Carolina Data Schools and
Accountability Reports website. All data on this website is pulled from public schools and the statewide
tests that each student takes during the year. Specifically, while there, I downloaded the State, District,
and School Level End-of-Course and End-of-Grade Assessment Report. This report has a plethora of
information on schools in each county of the state. I was interested in comparing the School Performance
and Overall Achievement scores of certain districts. With this information, since I have taught in charter
schools during my teaching tenure, I included their information (which was combined into their own
district) as well. While I am familiar with the districts I chose to compare, I wanted to see actual data
being compared to one another, side-by-side. Having concrete information to either support or undermine
my opinions can lead to further conclusions about the success of each district and the charter school
system.
The cleaning of my data did take a while. After figuring out what performance scores and the counties I
wanted to focus on, I deleted all the information in the Excel spreadsheet except the data pertaining to
charter schools, and the counties of Wake, Durham, Chapel Hill, Currituck, Cumberland, and CharlotteMecklenburg. I chose these places because they are the cities I am most familiar with in North Carolina.
As for Currituck County, I chose this place because I wanted a county to represent both rural and coastal
towns. I picked Currituck County because it inhabits both of these characteristics, which represents a
sizeable student population in the state. Finally, I added a column in the spreadsheet that would help with
geolocation for a map. I assigned the same zip code to all of the schools in the same county. This
grouping of schools aids in creating and displaying averages for the data.
The findings of the data support my hypothesis of Chapel Hill and Wake Counties having the highest
student achievement scores. I didnt know which county would be at the bottom, Cumberland or Durham,
but Durham proved itself in having some of the lowest scores in the state. In terms of the charter school
performance, because I think highly of them and the educational opportunities they provide to students, it
would have been nice if their performance was on-par with the students of Wake and Chapel Hill
counties; however, often times, charter schools are serving low-income students, who lack parental
support and outside means to support their academic endeavors. On average, the charter school
performance rivaled Currituck County, which is representative of average performance scores in North
Carolina.
If I was using this dashboard, my next step would be to look further into the data to discern which charter
schools performed well and which brought the averages down. For the charter schools that brought the
data down, looking into their student demographics, longevity of existence, and principals reputation
would help in ascertaining whether the schools are succeeding. I think the same could be done for the
counties of Durham and Chapel Hill. Learning the variables that are raising or decreasing student
achievement can inform teachers and their instruction, principals, and districts in how to better serve
students educational needs.