Data Analysis: Flat File Databases Vs Relational Databases

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Data Analysis Flat File Databases Vs Relational
Databases

• Presented at the September 2006
• Data Manager Training-1

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This Professional Development Presentation was
funded by the US Department of Education, No
Child Left Behind Act, and the Ohio Department of
Education. It was developed by the Reading
First-Ohio Center for Professional Development
and Technical Assistance in Effective Reading
Instruction, a Consortium of Cleveland State
University, John Carroll University and The
University of Akron. All materials are copy
written and should not be reproduced or
used without permission of Reading First- Ohio
Center for Professional Development Technical
Assistance in Effective Reading
Instruction. Presentation Leaders David Newman
Cleveland State University
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Last Years Focus

• We focused on graphing student data to help aid
  in understanding.
• We studied graphing principles to help make the
  graphs easy to understand.
• We started asking the right questions data can
  be used in an evaluative or formative manner.
• What are some of the questions that we ask of the
  data?
• Does The Data Provide Answers?
• Does The Data Help Us Ask Better/ More
  Appropriate Questions?
• Does The Data suggest the Next Logical Steps?

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Flat File Databases

• To conduct the analyses that allowed us to answer
  many of our questions, we have been using
  something called a Flat File Database.
• Flat File Databases are a database on one
  spreadsheet.one Excel worksheet.

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Analyses of Flat File Databases

• Graphs
• Bar Charts or Line Graphs
• Scatter Plots

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Analyses of Flat File Databases (Cont)

• Correlations
• Analysis of Variance

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Flat vs. Relational Databases

• We have seen some of the many analyses that can
  be done with a flat file database, so why use a
  relational database?
• What is a relational database? It is a
  sophisticated type of database in which data
  are organized in multiple tables. Data can be
  pulled from these tables just as if they were
  stored in a single table.

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Relational Databases

• Example of what a Relational Database Looks like

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Relational Database Uses

• It cuts down on the repetition of data entry
  saving time and database server space
• Reduces the amount of data entry errors
• It allows one to merge databases on a single
  related field (i.e. Local Student EMIS Number)

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Relational Database Query

• The Relational Database Query allows one to merge
  data from multiple tables
• Then export it to Excel

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Merged Database Analyses

• The merged database will allow one to do analyses
  across data fields that they were not previously
  able to conduct. One example is the relationship
  between the DIBELS 3 and OAT

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• Questions?