Total numbers of students in Utica Junior High for seventh and eight grades, the number of students actually tested for proficiency levels, the state student population at each grade level and numbers tested, and for truly accurate analysis a host of other demographic information would need to be taken into account (Giddens, 2006). Given the information actually provided, it would not only be practically impossible but statistically meaningless to perform real manipulation and analysis of the data. Even so, some very useful information can be gleaned form a simple side-by-side comparison of the school's proficiency percentages with overall state percentages, and in a simple assessment of the absolute value of the data points.

Interestingly, a proportionally higher number of students in seventh grade at Utica Junior High showed grade-level proficiency in both reading and mathematics, while eighth graders at the school were proportionally slightly less likely to have tested as...
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