Locating and Accessing Secondary Data

ANSWERS

This assignment is designed for you to learn how to locate and access secondary data--statistical information and machine-readable data--in via conventional published forms and via the Internet. Below are a series of questions about information that you are to locate, access, and present, with proper citation. All sources should be cited according to American Psychological Association format for citing material retrieved from the WWW.

1. What percentage of children under the age of 18 were living in poverty in 2003?

Answer: 17.6 percent.

Source: DeNavas-Walt, C.; Proctor, B.D., & Mills, R. J.. (2004). U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P60-226, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2003. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, Table A. Retrieved January 24, 2005 from http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/p60-226.pdf.

2. What percentage of Hispanics, 25-29 years old, were not high school graduates in March 2003?

Answer: 38.3 percent

Source: Stoops, N. (2004). Educational Attainment in the United States: 2003. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, P20-550. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, Figure 3. Retrieved January 24, 2005 http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/p20-550.pdf

3. How many public school districts in the United States in 2001-02 enrolled 25,000 students or more?

Answer: 248

Source: Snyder, T.D., Tan, A.G., and Hoffman, C.M. (2006). Digest of Education Statistics 2005, (NCES 2006–030). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, Table 86. Retrieved February 1, 2007, http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d05/tables/dt05_085.asp.

Alternative source: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Table created at: http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/bat/

4. What is the projected percentage change in the total number of students enrolled in California’s community colleges between 2006 and 2015?

Answer: 25%

Source: State of California, Department of Finance. (2004). California Public Postsecondary Enrollment Projections, 2006 Series. Sacramento: Department of Finance. Retrieved February 1, 2007 from http://www.dof.ca.gov/HTML/DEMOGRAP/ReportsPapers/Projections/Enrollment/Postsecondary/PostSecondaryProjections.asp.

5. What was the total public school enrollment in California in 2005-06?

Answer: 6,312,436

Source: California Department of Education. DataQuest. Sacramento: California Department of Education. Retrieved February 1, 2007 http://data1.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/EnrollEthState.asp?Level=State&TheYear=2005-06&cChoice=EnrollEth1&p=2.

6. What percentage of high school seniors from Dos Pueblos High School in 2002-03 completed all the high school courses required for UC and CSU admission?

Answer: 54.0%

Source: California Department of Education. (2005). DataQuest. Sacramento: California Department of Education. Retrieved January 24, 2005 http://data1.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/SchGrad.asp?cChoice=SchGrad&cYear=2002-03&cLevel=School&ctopic=Enrollment&myTimeFrame=S&TheName=&cSelect=DOS^PUEBLOS^SENIOR^H--SANTA^BARBARA^H--4269286-4231726&submit1=Submit.

7. Locate the study: School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2000, via the ICPSR website.

a. Print a copy of the study summary.

For the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2000, principals and school disciplinarians were surveyed regarding the frequency of violence at school, the nature of the school environment, and the characteristics of school violence prevention programs. The survey focuses on six main topics: characteristics of school policies, school violence prevention programs and practices, violent deaths at school and elsewhere, frequency of other incidents at schools, disciplinary problems and actions, and school characteristics. The variables include the following: availability of telephones in classrooms, compliance with laws regarding tobacco use, degree of discipline enforced, efforts to involve parents, actions to train teachers, the use of paid law enforcement, factors that limit efforts to prevent or reduce crime, frequency of violent deaths, frequency of other incidents including rape, sexual battery, physical fights with or without weapons, robbery, theft/larceny, possession of various weapons, possession/use of drugs, sexual harassment, vandalism, hate crimes, gang-related crimes, disruptive threats, racial tensions, bullying, classroom disorder, gang activities, intimidation, insubordination, and schools' response to the above which might include removal or suspension, school counseling, detention, loss of privileges, and community service. The variables on school characteristics include the percent of students below the 15th percentile on standardized tests, percent male students, number of classroom changes, type of school, absence rates, and dates of the academic year.

b. When was the data collected?

March 27-September 7, 2000

c What is the correct bibliographic citation for the data?

U.S. Dept. of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. SCHOOL SURVEY ON CRIME AND SAFETY (SSOCS), 2000: [United States] [Computer file]. ICPSR version. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Education, National Center for Education Statistics [producer], 2003. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2004.