Topic: Spreadsheets for Inquiry about API

~~~~~Learn~~~~~

Spreadsheets are often used by teachers for calculating grades and other administrative tasks, but they can also be quite powerful when appropriately put in the hands of learners. An interesting topic can quickly lead to an intriguing investigation, but it still takes a good teacher to make a topic interesting.

What is inquiry-based learning? Here is an overview of what inquiry learning is all about.

With inquiry-based learning, a "hook" is used to draw the student into the problem and begin asking questions. If you've sparked students' interests, then it shouldn't be difficult to elicit questions from them.

Today you will experience first hand the power of using spreadsheets to help answer real-world scientific questions.

~~~~~Practice and Assignment~~~~~

The Hook...

Accountability is now the focus of educators in California and across the nation. The Public Schools Accountability Act (PSAA) of 1999, led to the creation of a new educational accountability system for California public schools. Its primary goal is to help schools improve the academic achievement of all students.

The cornerstone to the PSAA is the API score. The purpose of the Academic Performance Index is to measure the academic performance and growth of schools. It is a numeric index (or scale) that ranges from a low of 200 to a high of 1000. A school's score or placement on the API is an indicator of a school's performance level. The interim statewide API performance target for all schools is 800. A school's growth is measured by how well it is moving toward or past that goal.

Inquiry begins here...

In this lesson, you will use a spreadsheet to help you examine the data that makes up your school's API. At the same time you will become familiar with the data published about each school on the CA Department of Education's Website.

There are two sites where the public can view data on California Schools. For more general information, look at the data on the Ed-data site. The second site is DataQuest. Both of these sites have valuable, reliable data updated regularly through the California Department of Education.

1. Obtain data. Your first job is to examine the types of data available to you and decide which data you would like examine over time. Some examples would by enrollment by grade or ethnicity, number of second language learners or special education students.

2. Present the data. After you decide which data you would like to study over time, take that data and input it on a spreadsheet. Your instructor will help you with this. If you have not yet mastered the use of Excel, you can refer to one of the many tutorials available. After you have entered the data into your spreadsheet, create a graph to illustrate the information.

3. Find more data. Now choose another school from a different socio-economic area. Use this school's data and make the same types of charts that you completed in section 3.

4. Analyze the data. The value of data is based on what types of conclusions can be drawn from it. Use one of the data sites listed above to obtain the API score of each of the schools you chose. What conclusions can you draw about the two schools? What do you believe some of their challenges would be to raise their API score?

5. Argue your point. Take the information you have discovered about these schools and compile it in a document containing charts to prove what you have concluded. This type of document might be shown to parents or a site council to demonstrate a problem or suggest a possible solution to improve achievement.

This page is by Jacki Montierth, Sweetwater Union High School District.
Some Rights Reserved by the SDSU Department of Educational Technology