Data Analysis Paper

[WLO: 5] [CLOs: 1, 2, 3]

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, review the KIDS COUNT Data Center (Links to an external site.) This website is a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation to track the well-being of children in the United States. Data can be accessed by location or by topics such as demographics, economic well-being, education, family and community, health and safety, and risky behaviors.

For this assignment, you will chart data using Microsoft Excel to produce charts that will be included in your Data Analysis paper. If you need assistance with using Microsoft products, you can review Microsoft’s Office Help & Training (Links to an external site.) web page.

To complete the Data Analysis Paper,

• Go to the KIDS COUNT Data Center (Links to an external site.)
• Choose one of the following data topics:
  • Demographics
  • Economic Well-being
  • Education
  • Family & Community
  • Health
  • Safety & Risky Behaviors
• Research your topic by extracting three scholarly, peer-reviewed articles on your chosen topic from the Ashford University Library.
• Choose your two state locations .
• Choose your national indicators.
• Choose a minimum of four years of data.
• Graph the data from the two different states the three following ways:
  • Line
  • Pie
  • Bar
• Analyze the findings in your data for each state relative to the peer-reviewed articles that you read on your chosen topic. For additional help review the Ashford Writing Center’s Summary vs. Analysis (Links to an external site.)

The Data Analysis Paper

• Must be three to four double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.)’s APA Style (Links to an external site.)
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).
• Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
  • For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
• Address the topic of the paper with critical thought.
• Include a description of the data found, and the data source. (Summarize the data found, and how it was collected and eventually made available to the data center.) Include your three graphs and analyze which graph is most appropriate for the data and state why.
• Describe any trends found in the data.
• Include a minimum of three reasons why the data is similar or different from the two locations or over time.
• Summarize three articles from scholarly sources (excluding your textbook) that discuss the data you selected.
  • The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
  • To assist you in completing the research required for this assignment, view this Ashford University Library Quick ‘n’ Dirty (Links to an external site.) tutorial, which introduces the Ashford University Library and the research process, and provides some library search tips.
• Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.)
• Must include a separate reference page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.
• Full page graphs are not counted as part of the three to four page minimum.