Dive Deeper with Decomposition Charts
Do you ever wonder where all the students in your school district come from? Pie charts and bar charts provide a general picture of enrollment (or enrolment!), but what if you want to understand the breakdown within specific schools or grades? That’s where decomposition charts come in! They offer the flexibility to reorder the hierarchy and add or remove dimensions, giving you a deeper understanding of your student body.
What is a Decomposition Chart?
Imagine a pie chart showing the total enrollment across all schools in your district. It might be helpful, but what if you want to see enrollment by grade level or by gender within a specific school, like Evergreen Central High School? A decomposition chart lets you reorder the hierarchy. Instead of School District > Schools, you can rearrange it to Gender > Schools > Grades. This allows you to see the breakdown by gender and each grade level at Evergreen Central.
Reordering and Restructuring
Decomposition charts aren’t limited to just rearranging existing data. You can also add or remove dimensions from the hierarchy. Let’s say you’re curious about the gender balance within each grade at Evergreen Central. You can add the “Gender” dimension to your decomposition chart, revealing the enrollment breakdown for boys and girls in each grade. Conversely, if you’re only interested in overall enrollment by school, you can remove the “Grade” and “Gender” dimensions, simplifying the chart to show just the total student population at each school within the district.
- Uncover Hidden Patterns: By reordering and restructuring your data, you can identify trends you might have missed before. Maybe there’s a surge in enrollment for a specific grade or program at Evergreen Central. This could lead to investigating the reasons behind the trend or adjusting resources accordingly.
- Focus on Specific Needs: Adding or removing dimensions allows you to tailor the data to your specific questions. Need to see the racial diversity across schools? Add the “Race” dimension. Want to understand the enrollment of students with special needs? Include that dimension as well.
- Make Data-Informed Decisions: Decomposition charts with flexible hierarchies empower you to analyze enrollment data from various angles, leading to more informed decisions about resource allocation, program development, and overall school improvement strategies.
Next time you’re looking at enrollment data, don’t be limited by the initial presentation. Embrace the power of decomposition charts! By reordering the hierarchy and adding or removing dimensions, you can unlock valuable insights and make data-driven choices that benefit your schools and students.
Want to learn more about decomposition charts and how to use them? Seeing is believing. Please contact Assure eServices for a District 360 demo.