Carleton College Prefect Program

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Carleton CollegePrefect Program

• Data Analysis 2004- Spring 2006
• Shannon Carcelli

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The Data Measurement

• Each student who visits a prefect session is
  counted on a sign-in sheet.
• Prefects who turn in these attendance records
  (usually about 50-70 of prefects, but its hard
  to be sure without looking at the actual numbers
  of sessions that meet each term) add their data
  to an ever-growing database that measures
  students attendance at prefect sessions.
• Along with a students attendance record, we
  record the students gender, class year, major,
  and whether or not the student attended the first
  or second session in any given class.

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Example of Make-up of Database
Gender Year Major Course Section Class Term Professor Prefect Prefect Gender Numberof Sessions Attended Attended First or second Session Class Per- iod Time of Prefect session
F 2007 Chemistry Chem 123 Fall 2004 Drew Weiss M 17 1 1A Sun/Thur
F 2007 Double Chem 123 Fall 2004 Drew Weiss M 17 1 1A Sun/Thur
F 2007 Neuroscience Chem 230 Spring 2005 Drew Weiss M 17 1 1A Sun/Thurs
M 2008 Undecided Econ 110 1 Winter 2005 Paas Rent M 17 0 2A Sun/Thur
F 2007 Chemistry Chem 233 Winter 2005 Chihade Sammnons F 16 1 4A Mon/Thur
F 2007 Biology Chem 233 Winter 2005 Chihade Sammnons F 16 1 4A Mon/Thur
F 2007 Economics Chem 123 Fall 2004 Drew Weiss M 16 1 1A Sun/Thur
F 2007 Biology Chem 123 Fall 2004 Drew Weiss M 16 0 1A Sun/Thur
M 2007 Biology Chem 123 Fall 2004 Drew Weiss M 16 1 1A Sun/Thur
F 2008 Undecided Chem 230 Spring 2005 Drew Weiss M 16 1 1A Sun/Thurs
F 2008 Undecided Bio 125 2 Fall 2004 Singer VanderMeer F 16 0 1A Sun/Thur
F 2007 Chemistry Chem 234 Spring 2005 Carlin Waller F 15 0 3A Mon/Wed
Dummy variable 1 means yes, 0 means no
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Major Findings

• Data on 59 classes--involving 38 prefects, 33
  professors, and about 1,481 students--have been
  collected and analyzed.
• 948 students (64.21 of students taking classes
  with prefects) have attended a prefect session at
  least once from 2004 to 2006.
• The average student who attended a prefect
  session for a class attended 4.27 sessions for
  that class.
• Overall, from 2004 to 2006, there were 6,270
  visits to prefect sessions. This does not
  include one-on-one tutoring sessions, nor does it
  include the many visits to the sessions of
  prefects who did not turn in their attendance
  records.

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By Academic Department

• 51.57 of biology students attended prefect
  sessions, available in both Biology 125 and
  Biology 126.
• 65.62 of chemistry students attended sessions,
  in Chemistry 123, 128, 230, 233, and 234.
• 75.58 of computer science students attended
  sessions, in Computer Science 117 and 127.
• 70.20 of economics students attended sessions,
  in Economics 110 and 111.
• 67.42 of psychology students attended sessions
  in Psychology 110 and 124.

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Gender Breakdown- Men

• 56.62 of men who had the resource available
  attended at least one prefect session.
• 18.51 of men attended at least 31 (or five) of
  their classes prefect sessions.
• 4.36 of men attended at least 63 (or ten) of
  their classes prefect sessions.
• 17.15 of men attended their classes first
  and/or second session.

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Gender Breakdown- Men

• Men were 3.56 more likely to attend a prefect
  session led by a female prefect.
• They were 7.90 more likely to attend 31 (or
  five) of prefect sessions if sessions were led by
  a female prefect.
• Men were 3.86 more likely to attend 63 (or ten)
  of prefect sessions if sessions were led by a
  female prefect.
• However, men were 1.11 more likely to attend the
  first or second session if the sessions were led
  by a male prefect.

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Gender Breakdown- Men
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Gender Breakdown- Women

• 69.13 of women who had the resource available
  attended at least one prefect session.
• 30.52 of women attended at least 31 (or five)
  of available sessions.
• 9.32 of women attended at least 63 (or ten) of
  available sessions.
• 30.96 of women attended the first or second
  session offered.

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Gender Breakdown- Women

• Women were 12.58 more likely to attend a session
  led by a male prefect.
• They were 18.66 more likely to attend 31 (or
  five) of sessions if sessions were led by a male
  prefect.
• Women were 16.59 more likely to attend 63 (or
  ten) of sessions if sessions were led by a male
  prefect.
• They were 22.91 more likely to attend the first
  and/or second session if they were led by a male
  prefect.

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Gender Breakdown- Women
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Gender and Attendance- Overall Trends

• Of the 59 classes for which data were available,
  30 (or 50.85) had male prefects and 29 (or
  49.15) had female prefects.
• Overall, students were 8.43 more likely to
  attend a prefect session led by a prefect of the
  opposite sex.
• They were 14.35 more likely to attend 31 of
  sessions, 12.24 more likely to attend 63 of
  sessions and 13.89 more likely to attend the
  first or second session when the sessions were
  led by a prefect of the opposite sex.
• This trend is much more apparent with women,
  although it is visible with men as well.

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Gender and Attendance- Overall Trends
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More Questions to be Answered

• First impressions Why were men more likely to
  attend the first few sessions led by male
  prefects, but more likely to continue attending
  sessions when they were led by women?
• Survey Suggestion Do students consciously
  choose to attend more sessions led by a prefect
  of the opposite sex?
• Gender Stereotypes More men tend to prefect for
  economics classes, and more women tend to prefect
  for psychology classes. Is it possible that male
  students simply feel less secure about their
  knowledge in psychology (a less stereotypically
  male discipline than economics) and therefore
  attend more sessions in order to obtain the extra
  help they think they need (and vice versa for
  women in economics)?

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Sources of Error

• Because not all prefects turned in their sign-in
  sheet data, everything measured paints an
  incomplete picture of the reality of prefect
  session attendance.
• In analyzing these data, we worked closely with
  the registrars office to gather class sizes and
  gender breakdowns information that was essential
  for our records and analysis. Although
  communication between the Academic Support Center
  and the registrars office has historically been
  good, there have been a few errors or
  miscommunications caught, and there could
  potentially be more.
• Lately, there have been more and more data that
  do not make sense, cannot be true, and remain
  unexplained. For example, according to the
  prefects sign-in sheets and information
  collected from the registrars office, there were
  at least four classes in 2005-2006 in which more
  women attended prefect sessions than were
  actually registered for the class. The best way
  to fix questionable data such as these is to be
  sure that the class lists that the prefects use
  are the same as the class lists that the
  registrar has.
• Some of the names on some of the sign-in sheets
  are questionable. Did Francis Scott Key really
  take Econ 111 at Carleton College?

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Suggestions for Improvement of Data

• The best and easiest way to ensure that our data
  remain presentable and indicative of the actual
  facts of the program is to improve communication
  between students, prefects, professors, the
  Academic Support Center and the registrars
  office.
• Professors need to supply students with a class
  list, both before the class begins and after the
  drop-add period ends. If this is an understood
  expectation, not only will it make for cleaner
  data, it will also improve prefect-professor
  communication (because it will open channels and
  allow for exchange of information at a vital time
  in the term when students are thinking about
  dropping the class), and it will make it easier
  for the prefect to begin getting to know the
  students (I personally know what a barrier it is
  not to have a class list at your first session!).

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Options for Class Lists

• Best-Case Scenario Professors would supply
  students with an electronic copy of an Excel
  spreadsheet of the class at the beginning of the
  term. Ideally, this spreadsheet would have the
  names of all students in the class and on the
  waitlist going down the left side. If the
  information is at the professors disposal, it
  would be really ideal for the spreadsheet to
  include the gender, class year, and/or major of
  every student as well. If all this is not
  possible, it would be sufficient for prefects to
  simply receive a list of students in the class,
  as long it includes those on the waitlist and as
  long as prefects receive and updated class list
  after the drop-add period.

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Example of What Data Analysts Would Love to See
on Excel Sheets from Prefects
Name Class Year Gender Prefects use these spaces to write in the dates of their sessions
Gene Bauer (notice there are no middle initials or nicknames) 2009 M 1 (using a dummy variable to describe attendance would make it easier to use excel programs to add up attendance) X (having an x rather than a 1 on sign-in sheets makes it harder to count up attendance)
Shannon Carcelli 2008 F 0 (i.e. did not attend) --
Kathy Evertz 2009 F 1 (i.e. attended) X
Lorie Tuma 2008 F 1 X
Nancy Hill 2007 F Note dropped class --
etc 0