1. Excel Tips: November BMN Meeting November 13, 2015 Kevin Hesla Director of Research & Strategy Colorado League of Charter Schools khesla@coloradoleague.org

2. Outline ▫ Excel Overview ▫ Filtering & Sorting ▫ Find & Replace ▫ Descriptive Statistics ▫ Percentiles & Percentile Rank ▫ Pivot Tables ▫ Advanced Formulas ▫ Helpful Shortcuts Colorado League of Charter Schools

3. Excel Overview ▫ Excel is easy to use ▫ Excel is powerful ▫ Excel is versatile ▫ Excel is universal ▫ You do not need to be a math genius or a coder in order to analyze data ▫ Excel can easily help you master and manage your data ▫ Data analysis can help you understand important trends and unlock helpful insights Colorado League of Charter Schools

4. Filtering & Sorting ▫ To apply data filters click on your data headers (the top row of your data) and under the Data tab select the Filter button ▫ Filters are a very helpful way to quickly review selected entries or to sort your data ▫ You can always turn filters off at any time by repeating the above process ▫ To sort your data (without using data filters) highlight your whole data table and select Sort which is also under the Data tab Colorado League of Charter Schools

5. Find & Replace ▫ To pull up the Find and Replace tool press CTRL F ▫ You can search for any number or any piece of text using the Find function ▫ The Replace function is similar to the Find function except that it will replace every instance of an entry with a name or number of your choosing ▫ For example, you could replace every instance of the test name “Language Usage” with the name “Language Arts” for the entire data table Colorado League of Charter Schools

6. Descriptive Statistics ▫ Basic descriptive statistics can be very helpful in understanding the distribution of your data ▫ The most common descriptive statistics are minimum, maximum, median and average ▫ Use =min(data range) to find the minimum value ▫ An example function is =min(G2:G3347) ▫ Use =max(data range) to find the maximum value in a range; use =median(data range) to find the median; use =average(data range) to find the average Colorado League of Charter Schools

7. Percentiles & Percentile Rank ▫ Percentiles are another way of understanding the distribution of your data ▫ An example function for finding the 20 th percentile of a range of values is =percentile(G2:G3347,0.20) ▫ You can modify this function to find any percentile value that you would like ▫ To find out where a specific number ranks in a distribution use the =percentrank function ▫ For example =percentrank(G2:G3347,235) Colorado League of Charter Schools

8. Pivot Tables ▫ Pivot Tables are an extremely powerful tool and everyone should learn how to use them ▫ To build a Pivot Table first highlight all of your data and then select PivotTable under the Insert tab (make sure to include your variable names/headers) ▫ When prompted press OK to add your Pivot Table as a new worksheet ▫ You can construct the Pivot Table any way that you like simply by dragging the variable names into any of the boxes in the bottom right corner of the screen Colorado League of Charter Schools

9. Advanced Formulas ▫ Two of the most helpful excel formulas are =if and =vlookup ▫ For example =if(G3>235,"Check","Fine") would return the word Fine when G8 is less than 235 and the word Check when G3 is more than 235 ▫ The vlookup function returns a value from a reference table for any given unique variable (like for example a student identification number or a school name) ▫ For help using the =vlookup function see this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtHJrjW31cA Colorado League of Charter Schools

10. Helpful Shortcuts ▫ There are hundreds of excel shortcuts and some are more helpful than others ▫ Many people know some of the most common shortcuts like CTRL C and CTRL V ▫ Other shortcuts like CTRL Z (undo) and F2 (display formula) are also extremely helpful ▫ Below is an excellent overview of excel shortcuts: https://exceljet.net/blog/the-54-excel-shortcuts-you- really-should-know Colorado League of Charter Schools