CAHSEE time series graphs
21/09/08 09:05 Filed in: CAHSEE | graph
interpretation
Making graphs for the 4point0 site
gets me caught up in more minutiae than most of us would imagine
possible. I was putting finishing touches on the CAHSEE
package the other day, including testing it on a couple dozen
schools. I include big schools and small schools in my tests
because there are always different issues with each group.
In the case of the CAHSEE time series plots, small districts often have a single high school with (at most) a small alternative program. In these cases, the school and district results are extremely close if not identical. I run into a problem in the graph below. The school line in the plot lays on top of the district line and yet there is a district line in the legend.
“Where did the district results go?” people will ask.
“Can’t you see the district results under that dark blue line?”
(Me either.)
Making the blue line transparent is not an option. Turning the one or more of the lines into something other than a line insults my sensibilities. I don’t care for hatched lines or squigley lines. Lines should be lines in my opinion.
What I ended up doing was making the district line fatter. It’s a good option when the school and district results are identical as in the graph below. However, when the results are different, it does nearly insult my sensibilities. I tried making the state, county, and district lines fatter as an option but that approach made me want to poke my eyes out. For the 2008 CAHSEE cycle, then, folks can pretty much count on an extra wide district line.
And now I find myself editing this post to say that I changed my mind yet again because the fat district lines, too, made me want to poke my eyes out. There aren’t that many schools in the state that will be affected. If I miss them in punching out the graphs and they wonder where the district line is, I’ll make a set with fat lines too. No problem.
We’ll see what 2009 brings.
In the case of the CAHSEE time series plots, small districts often have a single high school with (at most) a small alternative program. In these cases, the school and district results are extremely close if not identical. I run into a problem in the graph below. The school line in the plot lays on top of the district line and yet there is a district line in the legend.
“Where did the district results go?” people will ask.
“Can’t you see the district results under that dark blue line?”
(Me either.)
Making the blue line transparent is not an option. Turning the one or more of the lines into something other than a line insults my sensibilities. I don’t care for hatched lines or squigley lines. Lines should be lines in my opinion.
What I ended up doing was making the district line fatter. It’s a good option when the school and district results are identical as in the graph below. However, when the results are different, it does nearly insult my sensibilities. I tried making the state, county, and district lines fatter as an option but that approach made me want to poke my eyes out. For the 2008 CAHSEE cycle, then, folks can pretty much count on an extra wide district line.
And now I find myself editing this post to say that I changed my mind yet again because the fat district lines, too, made me want to poke my eyes out. There aren’t that many schools in the state that will be affected. If I miss them in punching out the graphs and they wonder where the district line is, I’ll make a set with fat lines too. No problem.
We’ll see what 2009 brings.
4point0schools.com |