Category: Data

The more visualizations I make the clearer it becomes that one of the major challenges of visualizing education data is that it is a very complicated system and it is difficult to simplify. For example, I made a visualization of student transfers from Maryland community colleges to Maryland public four-year institutions. This is only a portion of college transfers. It does not include transfers from public four-year institutions to other four-year institutions. It also does not include other segments of higher education institutions such as private four-year institutions or out-of-state institutions. There is not an easy way to simplify the data.

I made this data visualization using the “chord diagram with animated bullets” demo by amcharts. I just added in my data. The demo has 6 nodes, mine has 29. The good thing is that the nodes can be clicked off so that you can examine only specific nodes. For example, you could click off all but two of the community college to compare them.

Animated BUllet Chord Diagram of Student Transfers: Maryland Community Colleges to Maryland Public Four-year Institutions

Note: I just noticed when testing the post that this chart does not look great on mobile. It works better if you turn your phone to landscape mode. I am going to explore this further.

  • BSU=Bowie State University
  • CSU=Coppin State University
  • UB=University of Baltimore
  • UMBC=University of Maryland Baltimore County
  • UMCP=University of Maryland College Park
  • UMES=University of Maryland Eastern Shore
  • UMGC=University of Maryland Global Campus
  • SMCM=St. Mary’s College of Maryland
  • MSU=St. Mary’s College of Maryland
  • MSU=Morgan State University
  • UMB=University of Maryland, Baltimore
  • BCCC=Baltimore City Community College
  • CCBC=Community College of Baltimore County
  • CSM=College of Southern Maryland
  • MC=Montgomery College
  • PGCC=Prince George’s Community College

Source: Maryland Higher Education Commission: Undergraduate transfers among Maryland institutions of higher education 2019-2020, May 2021.

chord Diagram Student Transfers: Maryland Community Colleges to Maryland Public Four-year Institutions

Note: I just noticed when testing the post that this chart does not look great on mobile. It works better if you turn your phone to landscape mode. I am going to explore this further.

I removed the bullets to reduce the visual clutter. I think I like this version a little more, although I think that I can still make improvements. To improve it I stole the best elements from the “Who kissed who in Friends” chord diagram demo. I still think that I can make further improvements, but I need to explore the coding options a bit deeper to figure out what changes I would like to make. With this version, I may be able to add in the full names of the institutions in a future version.

This drill-down sunburst chart shows the breakdown of students that transferred to the University of Maryland College Park in fiscal 2020. The first layer shows the type of sending institution: Maryland Community Colleges; other University System of Maryland institutions; Maryland private institutions, including institutions that belong to the Maryland Univerity and College Association (MICUA); and out-of-state institutions. The second layer shows the institutions. However, since the original data source only shows the top institutions in a particular category, the names of not all out-of-state institutions are captured.

This chart is based on an Amcharts demo for a drill-down sunburst chart. This particular data only had two levels, but additional levels can be added if you have hierarchical data with multiple levels. As with several other charts I have tried making with Amcharts, this chart did not work in their add-in for WordPress. I however was able to add my data using Notepad. Then I saved the document as an HTML file by changing the file extension to .HTML. Then I uploaded the file to the media library for my website. Finally, I used some HTML code on this page to creat a frame and pull up the chart. I explained that process and shared the code I used in a previous post about my experiences making charts and maps with amcharts.

The chart shows that 63.6% of transfer students came from Maryland community colleges. Half (50.3%) of those students from Maryland community colleges came from Montgomery College, which is located in Montgomery County not far from UMCP. Anne Arundel Community College, Prince George’s Community College, and Howard Community College were also the source of a large number of transfer students. The second-largest source of transfer students is out-of-state institutions. For that category none of the sending schools are dominant. The biggest category is “other”.

UMCP Transfer Students in Fiscal 2020 Drill Down Sunburst Charth

Source: University System of Maryland, IRIS

This is the September 22, 2021, update of the map that shows that total reported cases by Anne Arundel County Public Schools by feeder system. The map was last published on September 21, 2021.

According to the data published by the Anne Arundel County School System on September 22, 2021, there are 1,335 students and 29 staff currently quarantining. There are 241 active cases: 223 students and 18 staff. In total there have been 303 cases this school year.

This is the September 22, 2022 update to a trend map I first made with the September 1, 2022 data.

This map reflects the total outbreak-associated cases in schools on September 22, 2021. This is an update of the September 15, 2021 map.

This is the September 21, 2021, update of a previous map.

This is an update of a previous post.

This is an update of a previous map.

This is an update of a previous map.

The Anne Arundel County Public School System updated its COVID data dashboard today. It reflects cases where contract tracing has been completed and data fully entered as of noon on September 20, 2021. IT does not include cases in which tracing, documentation, or determination are still in progress. The data dashboard was due to be updated on Wednesday, September 22, 201, but they decided to update it early.

According to the data dashboard, 1,092 students and 21 staff are currently quarantine. There are 170 students and 14 staff with active cases. The cases are as distributed as follows: 9 student cases at charter/contract schools; 76 student cases at elementary schools; 33 cases at middle schools; 51 cases at high schools; and 1 case at a specialty center.

Chorpleth map of Act COVID-19 cases in Anne Arundel County PUblic SChools

The map shows the active COVID-19 case in Anne Arundel County Public Schools by feeder system as of noon on September 20, 2021. The map includes student and staff active cases. According to the map the feeder system with the most active case, 24 is the North County High School feeder system: 3 high school cases; 4 middle school cases; and 15 elementary school cases. The feeder system with the least active cases is the South River High School feeder system: 1 high school case and 4 elementary school cases. This is an update of a previous map.

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