Analyzing Student Data in a Spreadsheet

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(The link to the whole sheet can be found here.)

Here you can see the table for just the students who were below average on their test scores, as well as the graph that depicts the growth trends for those students. (The averages along the bottom of the table are for all of the students' cumulative average on each test.) The data found seems to point to the overwhelming trend of the students with below-average test scores gradually increasing them, but generally starting out on the low end to begin with. They make progress, but not enough to bump them up to above the average score for the class. You can see clearly on the graph that some of those students are, by the last test, scoring well above the average range, making it clear that they have learned and are doing much better in the class than when the first began - a positive sign.

Obviously, tables and graphs like these are useful for getting a clear picture of which students are having a hard time with your class based on their test scores, both at the beginning and end of the semester/unit. By keeping records like this, and doing just the most basic calculations, it can be apparent which students require a little extra attention from the teacher in order to make sure they do not fall behind, or their grades do not take too big of a hit from low test scores early on. It is a great way to keep track of students' individual performances, as well as get a feel for how the class is doing as a whole.

For me, I was surprised at how easy it was to navigate Google sheets. Not being a friend to Excel, I was nervous about the project. But Sheets is easy to find your way around, and the tools are well-marked and delineated. I could not figure out how to embed the Sheet in my blog by myself, but once it was explained to me, that, too, was relatively simple. All in all, what seemed to be a daunting task actually turned out to be easy, and is something I think I will certainly use in order to compile and analyze class data in the future.