Picking my first data analysis project
Here’s something I haven’t publicized much. For the past seven months I’ve been enrolled in an online course through Coursera: the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate. I started this course after realizing I have some time on my hands to explore new pursuits, even as I help with the grandkids and work full time. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in front of the television, so I began to explore areas of interest—like data analytics.
The Google DA professional certificate prepares one to become a junior data analyst. The program consists of eight courses that teach you every step of the data analysis process, from identifying the question to gathering and cleaning data to presenting your findings and making a decision. I have enjoyed working through the course on nights and weekends, whenever time allowed.
Now, I’ve arrived at Course 8, which includes a case study. The case study becomes the first entry in your data analysis portfolio, so the instructor suggests you find something personal and unique. Having spent the last 20-plus years in educational assessment, a domain rich with data, I thought I might try and make use of publicly-available NAEP data. That, after doing some research, is not going to work out.
Using NAEP data isn’t a good place for a novice data analyst like myself to start. First, accessing the data would be a challenge.