Trends and Data Analysis - Essay Example

Trends & Data Analysis Introduction We all know that every attribute which follows a timeline of events from its inception to death experiences some change and gives readers an idea about the way the attribute changed the way of living of a section in the society. This can explained to a layman by the keyword called Trends. Trends show the nature and the characteristics of the attribute keeping timeline in mind. Trends are always backed by Statistics and data. That is one reason why statistics plays an important role in everyday lives because it gives a direction and an understanding of a particular element while trying to gauge it. For understanding of any event or data, trends play an important and in this assignment we try to focus our attention of understanding and comprehending the information provided by the tables, facts and figures which are spread over long period of time. In the following situation we take a set of data that can be viewed over a period of time like ten years. Being a Language Arts teacher the set of data which is of particular interest is any set of data or information regarding discipline or other variants of discipline. Discipline happens to be an important aspect in judging any person and this aspect becomes of paramount importance when the scenario of schools is being looked into. If we look at data presented to us by National Center of Education Statistics we can gather some important information which can help us analyze this important aspect of public schools in United States. Trends & Statistics of Discipline over the past ten years To understand the trends in more detailed manner we have to look the set of information in three different phases. The phases deal around the period of 1996-97, 2000 and 2003-2005. Thus such a long period of data sets could give us in-depth view of the whole situation of discipline in schools of United States. If we look at the scenario of public schools in 1996-1997 we can see that almost half of the public schools present in the country reported a minimum of one crime incident taking place in school premises. Another thing is that the trend of student absenteeism and physical conflicts among students continued to grow in upward trend if we compare the years of 1991 and 1996 signifying the fact that student indiscipline was growing among public school communities of the country. This can be bolstered by the fact that nearly sixty percent of the public schools which include both elementary and secondary schools reported the incidents of crime, violence and indiscipline. One trend we can notice by looking at the facts of levels of indiscipline and violence in these schools is that escalation pattern of the discipline problems to higher levels leading to situations like violence. It can be attributed by the fact that schools which actually reported discipline problems were facing a likelihood of experiencing quite a lot of incidents of violence and thus were more likely to have experienced incidents of crime when compared to those schools with less serious discipline problems. Another trend to be considered in the area of discipline is to view the argument from the public high schools and public elementary school's perspective (DeVoe, 2005). In this case the trends from the past decade has shown that the heads of the school regard at least one of the many discipline issues as serious in their schools so as to make sure that proper suitable action need to be taken place. This can attributed by the fact that almost forty percent of the high school principals reported a minimum of one serious discipline problem in their schools when compared to middle and elementary schools which reported around eighteen and eight percent respectively. Another trend which made impact in the public schools is increase of student bullying. As per the data of indicator of school crime, safety and discipline statistics, nearly thirty percent of the public schools reported weekly student bullying (Kauffman, 2002). Interesting analysis which crops up after treading over the data of 1999-2000 student indiscipline statistics of public schools is that these discipline problems which are reported by schools actually depend on some critical issues like the nature and characteristics of the school. One way to understand clearly is by considering the nature of schools. From the data analysis it is known that middle schools were more likely to report racial tensions, bullying and student indiscipline when compared to elementary and secondary schools. This is confirmed by the statistics which was covered by national center of education statistics. Fig: Percentage of public schools reporting selected discipline problems that occurred at school, by school level: 1999-2000(source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 1999-2000) Another trend analysis which comes into picture after looking at the data structure is that middle schools were more likely to report extremist activities and this is quite less than high schools rate but more than elementary schools.(DeVoe ,2002) One interesting trend which grew as number of years passed and which though can termed as obvious trend as it would have been anticipated by the clairvoyants and educationalists and statisticians is that discipline problems are in direct relation with the school size. As the enrollment increases chances of discipline issues also rises high with statistics showing that twenty-six percent of principals at schools with 1,000 or more students reported student verbal abuse of teachers, compared to 14 percent of schools with 500-999 students, 10 percent of schools with 300-499 students, and 7 percent of schools with less than 300 students. Now if we look at the recent data analysis of last 3-4 years we can see the following statistics and trends which come up on the main arena while we are discussing about discipline (Miller, 2002). This will actually give an idea of recent trends. It is learnt that around half of the public schools have taken a serious disciplinary action against a student for specific offenses. The other important statistics which have come up are as quoted from the national center of education statistics are Four percent of all public schools took one or more serious disciplinary actions in response to students' use or possession of a firearm or explosive device in 2003-04. Students' use or possession of weapons other than firearms resulted in at least one serious disciplinary action in 17 percent of schools. In 2003-04, 83 percent of public schools controlled access to school buildings by locking or monitoring doors during school hours, and 36 percent controlled access to school grounds with locked or monitored gates (Digest of Education Statistics, 2006). The vast majority of students ages 12-18 reported that their school had a student code of conduct (95 percent) and a requirement that visitor's sign in (93 percent) in 2005 Metal detectors were the least observed security measure, with 11 percent of students reporting their use at their school. Other statistics which are related to school size were as follows middle schools were also more likely than high schools to report daily or weekly incidences of student bullying (42 vs. 21 percent) and student acts of disrespect for teachers (32 vs. 26 percent).(Digest of Education Statistics,2006). During the school year, high schools were more likely than both middle and primary schools to report gang activity (41 vs. 31 and 8 percent, respectively) and more likely than middle schools to report extremist cult activity (13 vs. 6 percent).(Digest of Education Statistics,2006). These all things only add up to the fact though the government, society and attitudes of people have changed a bit .discipline happened to make a steady inroad in the lives of people connected to the society. Fig: Percentage of public schools reporting selected discipline problems that occurred at school, by school level: 2003-04 (source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2004.) One trend which we have gathered by looking at the both the table figures which shows same discipline problems across all the types of schools is that discipline problems remained steady for most of the part of the table in that it can be understood that there had only been a marginal shift in the each category problem of discipline. This can be bolstered by the fact that in first table, which shows the discipline issues in 1999-2000, in the category of student disrespect towards teachers the middle, secondary schools have percent rate of 30 and 29 respectively while the total school rate has been 26(DeVoe, 2005). This is compared to the table figure data of 2003-2004 where for the same category the rates have been 32, 26 for middle and secondary school respectively while the combined rate was around 25 percent (DeVoe, 2005) So there was only a marginal shift in the data which when analyzed makes us realizes that situation at schools during the period of 2000 to 2005 did not change drastically and the trends which have been continued from 1999-2000 have continued in more or less in a same manner. Impact at Societal & Global Level Discipline and issues relating to it have always been important to all sections of society. Not only it made impact on an individual but it made its presence felt on national scenario too. Educationalists also felt that one of the most important issues which arose in last few years in education sector has been discipline issues. The major issue about discipline and its variants is that it affects everyone present in a society directly or indirectly. If we consider it at individual level, indiscipline by students in schools affects the students a lot. We can consider it a blockade to the development of child both at mental and physical level. Indiscipline or any other forms of disciplinary problems hampers the growth of a child leading to imbalance of the human mind thereby creating problems not only to the student but also other classmates of the student, the family and the school in general. Thus affecting an individual escalates the problem to higher levels which affect the whole society. Now the important question which arises in our minds is that effect of these trends and data on individual and societal level. The answer which comes is that people are always struck up by statistics and it is always thought that statistics presents out some important information regarding any issue and this issue is also no exception. The trends and statistics of discipline issues over the past ten years tell us that society as whole due to this issue has been polarized (Oliver Moles, 2002). The stage of middle schools and elementary school in a student's life has become critical than ever before. With statistics showing lot more student bullying and undesirable gang activities at such levels it becomes important that teachers and parents look into matter helping students bring out of such levels because if no steps are taken care then it is the student who gets affected the most. The statistics of 2003-04 tells us that there has been rise of intolerance at various levels in schools (Digest of Education Statistics, 2006). This is not prevalent only in the schools of United States but also relevant to other countries like Germany, United Kingdom, India and France. Discipline issues have become a major global phenomenon and school authorities, psychologists and educationalists have realized that eradicating indiscipline and disciplinary issues have become a critical issue for the betterment of human life both at psychological and physical level. Thus we can understand that statistics and trends shows us an insight view of how the future needs to be shaped up based upon on the past experiences and thus it gives an important element of improving the situation at all levels. It is hoped that these trends change the human perspective of discipline and change the face of statistics which has been presented to us all these years. Significance to Profession Being in the profession of teaching, the trends and statistics of the discipline issues and its variants give teachers a real outlook of the situation, in the form of data and figures, which they face in reality. It is the teachers who actually are at the receiving end of problems like student disrespect towards, indiscipline and various other problems while taking class. The data which shows student verbal abuse of teachers helps the teachers understand the importance of curbing such incidents because it can harm the whole profession of teaching as the main responsibility of teachers apart from teaching is to help in the development of students at all forms. So such incidents can spoil the whole relationship which exists between them. Another major aspect which these data and trends show to teachers who are teaching in public schools is that it can aid them in identifying the critical areas where such incidents are happening thus making them more resolute in curbing the problem at that particular area. For example if we look at the statistics of 2003-2004 provided in the diagram previously and if we consider the issue of student acts of disrespect towards teachers we can see that the data suggests that such incidents are higher in public high schools and middle schools and comparatively lower in primary schools(Digest of Education Statistics,2006). Such trends and statistics will help teachers to focus more on high school students, allowing them to use various techniques which could be quite useful when dealing with them. Similarly they can use different strategies when dealing middle schools and primary schools. Thus the data and trends give teachers a complete idea of the disciplinary problems at all levels of public schools helping them to tackle all these issues with more authority. The major significance of such data is also that teachers can learn the mistakes they commit when dealing with students because it is widely perceived that student psyche is different from the way the teachers think and such type of data, facts and statistics help them to bridge the gap between the students -teacher relationship. References 1. DeVoe J, Phil Kaufman (2002) Indicators of School Crime & Safety 2002 Retrieved January 23, 2006 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2003/2003009.pdf 2. Amanda Miller (2002) Indicators of School Crime & Safety Retrieved January 24,2007 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/2003009.pdf 3. Oliver Moles (2002) Student Discipline Strategies. New York: Wiley 4. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2004) Occupational Outlook Handbook. Washington: Claitor 5. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2006). Digest of Education Statistics Retrieved January 24,2007 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006001.pdf 6. DeVoe, J.F., and Kaffenberger, S. (2005). Student Reports of Bullying: Results from the 2001 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey. Retrieved January 25,2007 fromhttp://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005310.pdf 7. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2006). Digest of Education Statistics, 2005. Retrieved January 25, 2007 from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d05_tf.asp Read More