Thursday, October 9, 2008
Data! Arg!
The greatest frustration of this internship is that none of the data we receive seems to match up. On Tuesday, I was at the office until 7 pm trying to figure out how to present test scores to compare district and charter schools. For some reason, the data reported by the Dept. of Education is not the same for district and charter schools, which makes direct comparisons impossible. We also found that some districts will be reported as not meeting AYP (adequate yearly progress), even when all of the individual schools have met AYP. How can a district not be meeting something if all of the schools in the district met it? Inconsistency drives me nuts!
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2 comments:
Kathryn,
First of all, I want to wish you good luck as you continue in the program. The college of public programs is evolving and I believe it is going to be one of the most sought after programs at ASU in the years ahead. I think the fact that you are doing an internship so early is great. One of the things I would recommend as a new student in the program is to get as much exposure to what you want to do as possible. Talk with teachers and other experts in the field because they will be able to give you good tips and help you find people to network with. You will find that a lot of teachers and other students in the program are so willing to help. I don't want to stress the exposure program enough because if your experience with classes are similar to mine, you will find that many of the classes are theoretical. They will teach you the history to Public Administration but a lot of times, you will not see how applicable it is in your life.
I hope you have a great time as you start and continue your studies in the program. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.
Good luck.
Ha Ha! I think you can make statistics say what ever you want them to say...so who cares if the numbers don't match up! There is a reason people keep reading the book "Damned Lies and Statistics!" I can only say this because of my undergraduate minor in stats. I love them. Perhaps it is because they are so manipulatable!!
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