Data Selection Tutorial

This tutorial will provide detailed instructions on creating and modifying a data table using data from the “Civil Rights Data Collection 2006.” For example, the following steps are necessary to access data on the number and percentage of female students, by race, in AP Science courses in Alexander City School District, Alabama.

SELECTING DATA

Start by opening a table

1. From the “Civil Rights Data Collection 2006” home page, select "View the Data" twice to go to the survey data page.

   Currently, there are two folders on this page: “Reported Data: New Tables for 2006” and “Reported Data.” The “Reported Data: New Tables for 2006” folder contains data tables that were collected for the first time in 2006: single sex classes, retesting for graduation, and GED. This folder also contains expanded Advanced Placement (AP) data that includes the following new tables: AP Summary Table; AP Enrollment, Participation in AP Tests, and Results of AP Tests; and Enrollment in AP Courses, including Foreign Language and Other Subjects. Tables for graduates and for interscholastic athletics, although they contain data that have been collected in prior years, are in the “Reported Data: New Tables for 2006” folder because they have been revised.

   The second folder, “Reported Data,” contains tables that have only one row of new data or have no changes to the previously collected data.

   This tutorial will focus on the first table in the “Reported Data: New Tables for 2006” folder, entitled “Students in AP Mathematics, Science, Foreign Language, and Other Subjects, by race/ethnicity by sex (Table 14, 2006-2007)”.

2. To open this table, select the table name. An incomplete table, which includes state names and race/ethnicity labels, will appear in the right pane of the screen. In the left pane of the screen, there are five “Select Dimensions,” including “State/Dist/High schools,” “Measures,” “Data Categories,” “Sex,” and “Race/Ethnicity.”

3. In the left pane, under “Select Dimensions,” select “State/Dist/High schools.” In the right pane, an alphabetized list of the states will appear with a black check mark in the box beside each state. Above this list, several green check marks and red “x”s appear under a section called “Select/Clear Dimension Members.” Within this section, the word “All” has a green check mark and a red “x” beside it. Click on this red “x.” A screen will appear with an alphabetized list of the states, and the box beside each state will no longer have a black check mark in it.

   For this example, to view data for Alexander City School District, Alabama, select the plus icon ( ) beside “Alabama.” The name of all the districts in Alabama will appear. Select “Al Alexander City,” and a check mark will appear in the box beside the district name. Note, because the Civil Rights Data Collection does not collect state-level data, at least one school district or school must be selected in order to view OCR data.

4. As you proceed, the “Select/Clear Dimension Members” section will appear frequently in the right pane of the screen. For basic searches, and as this tutorial does in all subsequent steps, you may ignore this section. If you are interested in learning more about the role of the green check marks and the red “x”s, please view the tutorials discussed below.

5. In the left pane, under “Select Dimensions,” select “Measures.” In the right pane, you may select whether you’d like to view data on the “number of students” and/or the “percentage of students.” To view the number and percentage of students in Alexander City School District, Alabama who are enrolled in AP courses, select both the “number of students” and the “percentage of students.” Note, if you do not modify this Dimension, the default Measure is “number of students.”

6. In the left pane, under “Select Dimensions,” select “Data Categories.” In the right pane, you may select whether you’d like to view data on “Mathematics,” “Science,” “Foreign Languages,” and/or “Other Subjects.” For purposes of this example, select “Science.” Note, if you do not modify this Dimension, the default Data Category is “Mathematics.”

7. In the left pane, under “Select Dimensions,” select “Sex.” In the right pane, you may select whether you’d like to view data for “Female,” “Male,” or “Total” students. For purposes of this example, select “Female.” Note, if you do not modify this Dimension, the default Sex is “Total.”

8. In the left pane, under “Select Dimensions,” select “Race/Ethnicity.” In the right pane, you may select whether you’d like to view data for “American Indian or Alaskan Native,” “Asian or Pacific Islander,” “Hispanic,” “Black, Not of Hispanic Origin,” “White, Not of Hispanic Origin,” or “All races.” For purposes of this example, select the first five options, which would include all options except “All races.” Note, if you do not modify this Dimension, the default Race is “All races.”

9. To view the table, select the “View table” icon ( ) in the upper left corner of the right pane. The table will appear in the right pane. To expand the visible area of the table, select one of the small black arrows (  or  ) surrounding the table.

RE-SELECTING AND DE-SELECTING DATA

To re-select and de-select “Dimensions” of the table, go to the left pane of the screen. For example, to view Male students in Mathematics AP courses instead of Female students in Science AP courses, under “Select Dimensions,” select “Sex.” In the right pane, select “Male” and de-select “Female.” Next, under “Select Dimensions,” select “Data Categories.” In the right pane, select “Mathematics” and de-select “Science.” To view the table, select the “View table” icon ( ) in the upper left corner of the right pane. The table will appear in the right pane.

MODIFYING THE PRESENTATION OF YOUR DATA

When viewing district-level data in a table, you may view data for individual schools in that district by clicking on the district name. For example, click on “Al Alexander City,” and data for “AL Benjamin Russell High Sch” will appear in the table.

There are a variety of ways to modify, customize, or present your data. To view tutorials on these features, click on one of the following tutorial options: "Arranging Dimensions", "Calculations", "Sorting", "Ranking", "Top/Bottom Reduction", and "Highlighting" . Although these tutorials do not use OCR data, all instructions are applicable to modifying, customizing, and presenting OCR data reports. Links to all tutorials are available by selecting the “ABC” icon located in the top right corner of the right pane.

SAVING AND PRINTING YOUR DATA

To save the data you have selected, follow the procedures described in the "Downloading Reports" tutorial. A link to this (and all other tutorials) is available by selecting the “ABC” icon located in the top right corner of the right pane.

To print your data, select the “print” icon ( ) located in the top left corner of the right pane. After selecting the “print” icon and prior to printing, you may customize the layout, paper size, and margins of your data table.

CLOSING THE TABLE

To create a new data table using a different data report, select the “folder” icon ( ) located in the top right corner of the right pane. After selecting this icon, the “Public Reports” screen will appear and you may select any available report to create a new data table.

ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE

For additional assistance with creating and modifying a report, a comprehensive tutorial entitled "Selecting dimensions and members" provides step-by-step instructions on this process. Although this tutorial does not use OCR data, all instructions are applicable to creating and modifying OCR data reports. A link to this (and all tutorials) is available by selecting the “ABC” icon located in the top right corner of the right pane.