Analyzing Student Data in a Spreadsheet

The Process
After reading in full the directions to the assignment, I took the following steps:

1. I copied and pasted the Raw Student Data into a Google Spreadsheet. (see first tab) I like charts to have some color differentiation, so I added that before moving on.  I think it helps the eyes follow the data delineation better.
2. Since I like this kind of thing, I took the averages for all of the tests, which ended up being 173.6.
3. As the assignment only wants the trend for tests 6 - 10, I opened another worksheet (second tab, "Test 6-10 All") and copied only the names and scores for tests 6 - 10.  
4. Using the formulas function, I calculated (or rather let the formula calculate) the average for these specific tests, which ended up being: 191.2
5. The assignment asks for the trends for the bottom half of the class, so I opened yet another worksheet (third tab, "Below Average Group") and transferred all the student names and scores that fell below 191.2
6. Using the chart tool, I created a line chart that represents all the below average students and the trend of their test scores. 

 

The Results
There is an obvious upwards trend for all of the below average students.  As a teacher, this kind of information is extremely valuable; it speaks of improvement, that whatever changes mid-term are being made in teaching style or lesson plan, it is working.  Even by looking at the difference in average score from test 6, a 153.4, to test 10, a 187.1, an obvious upswing is in progress. 
The lovely thing about these types of charts is they provide a striking visual presentation of improvement, which would appease not only the teacher, but principals, fellow colleagues, parents, and the school board. 
When I worked in the private sector, each of the employees at the collections call center I worked for received a monthly statement showing their numbers for the month and line graphs giving their yearly trend for dollars collected, calls taken and made, etc.  This same procedure would be a fabulous tool for parent-teacher conferences, to place in a student's portfolio, and even for the students themselves to see their individual progress.  It was pretty easy and quick to accomplish as well, especially once the spreadsheet is set up, since the data updates itself in live-action.  So a teacher could set up a spreadsheet at the beginning of the year, and would only have to enter scores in as the year progresses to have it all available to download, share or print.

Out of curiosity, and since I'm a bit of a data geek, I wanted to see if the above average half of the class continued to trend upwards as well, or had leveled off since they were already doing well enough.  These results are on tab 4 ("Above Average Group").  Their group average is 210, and they trend upwards as well.

In Conclusion
Overall, I enjoyed using Google Spreadsheet.  There is a bit of clunkiness as far as maneuvering rows and columns, and there aren't as many formatting options for the cells as there are for Microsoft Excel.  But it is extremely user friendly, especially for those who are intimidated by Excel.
In order for the trends to accurately depict the data, all of the tests would need to have the same scoring system, or percentages could be substituted for raw scores.  But this tool is obviously very enlightening to depict student progress (or lack thereof).