Data analysis is carried out by making use of the findings acquired after the implementation of the survey questionnaire (Badke, 2004). Special care is taken to ensure that the data is not tampered with through any indirect means and that the analysis is performed by making use of thresholds and the rationale developed in the earlier stages of the research. Chelimsky and Grosshans (1992) famously noted that “Data analysis is more than number crunching. It is an activity that permeates all stages of a study” (Chelimsky and Grosshans, 1992).
Thus, in the case of a school counseling program, it is imperative to highlight that data analysis is one of the most sensitive stages of a research study, and the slightest misinterpretation or misjudgment can influence the findings to an extensive degree. School counseling Data analysis requires the transformation of data into a form so that it can be subjected to analysis and comparison (Chelimsky and Grosshans, 1992). Here, data analysis in itself is the formulation of means through which the collected data can be processed into a form from which it can be interpreted.
As a result, data analysis helps school counseling by a huge degree because it represents the details of any subject, or group of subjects, with high precision. Once this is obtained, it becomes easy for the researchers or councilors to formulate a proper strategy to achieve the goal of an ongoing or proposed program. Data analysis makes a school counseling program error-free, and it is effective in terms of time and cost as formulation could be done without the risk of any major inaccuracy Badke, 2004).
Similarly, in the context of student achievement, data analysis provides the required statistical details along with other factors that are necessary to determine the rate of a student’s progress. On an individual level, the method of data analysis is a scale to measure the progression of a student. In essence, in the context of student achievement, data analysis comes across as the inspection of data in order to bring it into a form where it can be placed formally in the research project in order to subject it to scrutiny to derive interpretations and inferences from the data (Kothari, 2008). Data analysis, therefore, incorporates a thorough insight into the data collection technique from which the data has been collected as well as the limitations that were experienced during the collection of the data.
It should be mentioned that a survey questionnaire is hardly an option in the context of student achievement, which, unlike in the case of the school counseling program, is chiefly based on marks and numbers and thus it is fundamentally qualitative in nature, and there are no open-ended questions involved. The statistics revealed by the data analysis of student achievement are completely objective. Thus, it ensures the authorities evaluate the individual performance of a student over a period of time. This helps to determine the progress and assists the instituting to grade and judge a student with extreme accuracy (Badke, 2004).
As a result, it is obvious that the methods of data analysis can be regarded as important tools. This is applicable for the evaluation of both the school counseling program and student achievement. The methods of data analysis may vary in accordance with the need of the subject, but it ensures a high degree of accuracy, and it is thus helpful for both school counseling programs and student achievement.
References
Badke, W. B. (2004). Research strategies: finding your way through the information fog. Nebraska: I-Universe.
Chelimsky, E., & Grosshans, W. (1992). Report to Program Evaluation and Methodology Division. Washington, D.C.: U.S. General Accounting Office.
Kothari, C. R. (2008). Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. New Delhi: New Age International.