Methods Overview

This page covers approaches that we used to collect, clean, analyze, interpret, and communicate the Arts Engagement data.

Analytical Techniques

TOPIC MODELS : a text-mining tool for discovery of hidden semantic structures (topics) in a text or a corpus of texts

CLOSE READING AND INTERPRETATION : reading individual responses and interpreting the results and overall relationships — individually and through group discussion

DICTIONARIES : organized collections of terms and phrases used to help classify, categorize, and calculate the frequency of words in text

PRINCIPAL COMPONENTS ANALYSIS : extracts information about many different variables and integrates this information into fewer dimensions which may then be used to help interpret and describe patterns or make comparisons with other variables

DEMOGRAPHIC COMPARISONS : analysis of variance using factors such as sex, grade point average, high school locale, ethnic group, income, etc.