APA NAEP

I found the NCES site, which comparison educational statistics, to be very interesting. The site allowed me to look at national comparisons for 4th, 8th, and 11th grade, which is nice so teachers at all levels had something to analyze. I was very disappointed in WV rankings, but unfortunatly was not surprised. I downloaded the Excel document and began analyzing the data. I first had to unmerge the cells, then sort state data from largest to smallest, find our rankings and report on them while creating a scatter plot. I found our state and colored it red to stand out from the green data points. Then I created a t-test using equal variance and found no significant difference based on the findings. This data allowed us to accept the null hypothesis that boys are smarter than girls in 8th grade math. Learning this data will allow me as a teacher to reinforce that girls are just as good in math and try to teach girls this in my class. Also, I will try to raise standards in math class and try to improve on WV scores. By writing another APA paper, I am furthering my professional development therefore touching on NETS standard 5, professional growth and leadership because we are evaluating and reflecting on current research. Also Standard 3 Model Digit Work and Learning, by communicating relevent information to parents, students, and peers.