APA Writing

     The NAEP (National Assessment of Education Progress) test is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what students in America know and can do.  It it given in grades 4, 8, and 12 every 2 years.  The NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) is the primary federal agency for collecting and analyzing data related to education.  The NCES is good for educational professionals because Congress uses it to plan federal education programs and apportion funds among the states.  Educational organizations use this data to plan and research.  The data provides indicators of educational status and trends. 
     For this activity, I visited the NCES website and looked at 8th grade math scores sorted by gender for 2011.  I took this data and exported it to an Excel spreadsheet.  I compared WV with the rest of the country.  I then did the descriptive statistics for gender and scores as well as the ttest.  I began writing my paper which included results, a chart, and a table in APA format.  Here is my paper.
     This paper was easier than the first and I hope I have a better understanding of APA format and writing research results.  It is important to understand APA format because students and teachers need to write and read papers in this format.
     The standards addressed are #3 Model Digital-Age Work and Learning and #5 Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership.  This activity required knowing how to use Excel and perform data analysis.  Also, the paper required exploration of data and the ability to write a research paper using APA format.