In spring of 2019 I had the opportunity to take the CURE class People and Big Data. This course centered around the topic of big data and its applications in many different fields of study, including social media, security, and education. Throughout the course of the class, I participated in a faculty-led research study led by Dr. David Miller (College of Education). I worked with A. Asar, S. Loving, M. Tamashiro, and B. Zhang to plan and conduct research, as well as design and produce a research poster.

          Our research project, entitled "English Language Learners (ELLs) in Florida Public Elementary Schools", examined the relationship between percentage of ELLs in randomly selected Florida Public Elementary Schools and the percentage of passing scores on the Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) in English Language Arts and Math. We randomly selected public elementary schools from randomly selected rural and urban school districts from the Florida Department of Education's online database. Using this website, we were able to compile data on percentage of ELLs, gender, race, economic status, and FSA scores for each elementary school. The program SPSS was used to conducted regression analyses that conveyed the relationship between the demographics, community type, and percentage of ELL students in public elementary schools and the FSA pass rate for grades 3-5 in these schools.

          Upon analysis of our data, we found that when predicting for pass rates of FSA math tests for grades 3, 4, and 5, the percentage of ELLs is a fairly significant predictor in models that include district type as a variable. Most interestingly, the results yielded very strong evidence to suggest that the percentage of economically disadvantaged students is a highly significant predictor of FSA pass rates. This suggests that perhaps the underperformance of ELLs on the FSA is overstated, as socioeconomic status seems to have a stronger correlation to school FSA performance.

          This CURE class was a great opportunity for me to begin learning about research processes via a hands-on approach. I am grateful to have been able to work in a group setting with a faculty member to better understand the work that goes into producing a research poster.