Practice Problems Using the 2001-02 ISBE Data

Professor Robert J. Lemke
FIYS 126
Fall 2006

Question One

For this problem, use the districts.xls data set, which contains one observation for each district in Illinois. When you open this file in Excel, you should convince yourself that it has 37 variables (columns A - AK) and 888 observations (rows 2 - 889 as row 1 contains variable names).

  1. What is the highest tax rate per $100 of equalized assessed value?

  2. How many districts have less than 25 percent of its teachers holding a masters degree?

  3. How much revenue does the average district in Illinois receive on a per pupil basis from local, state, and federal sources?

Question Two

For this problem, use the chicago_elemschls.xls, which contains one observation for each elementary school in Chicago. When you open this file in Excel, you should convince yourself that it has 16 variables (columns A - P) and 479 observations (rows 2 - 480).

  1. What is the average pass rate on NCLB assessments in schools for which less than 20 percent of the student body is white? What is the average pass rate on NCLB assessments in schools for which at least 60 percent of the student body is white?

  2. Among the schools for which less than 20 percent of the student body is white, what percent of students come from low-income households on average? Among the schools for which at least 60 percent of the student body is white, what percent of students come from low-income households on average?

  3. Among the schools for which less than 20 percent of the student body is white, what percent of teachers are not highly qualified on average as defined by NCLB standards? Among the schools for which at least 60 percent of the student body is white, what percent of teachers are not highly qualified on average as defined by NCLB standards?

Question Three

For this problem, use the chicago_highschls.xls data set, which contains one observation for each high school in Chicago. When you open this file in Excel, you should convince yourself that it has 37 variables (columns A - AK) and 68 observations (rows 2 - 69).

  1. What is the average drop out rate, truancy rate, and attendance rate for all Chicago high schools?

  2. How many Chicago high schools enroll less than 500 students? Between 500 and 999 students? Between 1000 and 1999 students? Between 2000 and 2999 students? And between 3000 and 5000 students?