Over the past 6 years, I have worked in an Operations role at two different charter schools in Brooklyn. I had a variety of roles and responsibilities, but the favorite part of my job was always the data analysis of student investment, academic and behavior data, and teacher performance using google spreadsheets and excel. I enjoyed the google search for a method that someone else used that would work with the issue at hand and I would get a rush of excitement whenever I would figure out a long formula I was working on.
I first learned about Data Science from a co-worker who was always impressed with what I was doing with google spreadsheets and strongly encouraged me to look into Data Analytic Bootcamp Programs. My co-worker also mentioned that someone they knew had taken the program and enjoyed it and was able to get a job after the program. As I began doing my research, I realized that this was similar to what I was doing in a different and more robust "language" and at a much higher difficulty/intensity.
I want to explore how data science can help schools and the education technology industry improve in order to better support the students they serve especially in lower income communities.
One specific question I want to explore is how New York City (NYC) charter schools have performed over time with the New York State Exam (NYSE). The NYSE is a required exam that all NYC Department of Education (DOE) public schools have to administer and is used to determine whether a student will be promoted to the next grade. I don't believe there is a analysis that exists that answers this question and I think this is important to 1) to see if charter schools are a viable option for parents to send their kids to who want to see their children be well educated and 2) and which charter schools have performed more exceptionally than others.
Flatiron School was the program my co-worker recommended to me and when I began looking deeper into the program, the two main factors that appealed most to me were its job application network and full-time program. Flatiron School has multiple locations across the U.S. and access to their respective job market and having the option to apply to various locations with the support and network Flatiron school offers will provide me an advantage when I begin applying for jobs. I was also intrigued by the schedule and curriculum that their full time program offers. I have discovered that the best way for me to learn a new skill is to fully dedicate myself to the absorption of the material and not get distracted by other commitments.
In the future, I want to apply the data analytic skills I learn from this program to become a data analyst or some similar capacity for a education technology company, a large charter school network, or State Department of Education.
Hopefully I'll have more exciting news and updates to offer in the coming weeks and months. Stay tuned!
- Jesús Baquiax
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