To get started accessing the data, there are two tabs at the top of the
website that will take you to pages where the data are presented that will
allow you to look at and analyze survey results in different ways.
A Variable is a data item or question asked in the survey and is any measurable
attribute, characteristic or behavior that can be measured or counted. The
Variables
page allows you to look at the results of a specific question by itself.
For instance, the Overall Health category on the Variables page allows you to look
at how respondents answered each of the questions in the category one at a time.
Crosstabs is short for Cross Tabulations. The Crosstabs
page allows you to look
at the results of two questions at the same time to see if there is a relationship
between the two questions by "crossing" the results. This provides a comparison
of how different groups of respondents answered a particular question. For example,
you can look at the results of alcohol use by whether or not respondents have been
absent during the past month. It is important to remember that to get an
accurate statewide or county estimate using the Crosstabs page, you need to cross
the item of interest by Grade. For example, looking at alcohol use by Grade will
give you the accurate statewide estimate for alcohol use for 6th, 8th and 11th grade;
looking at alcohol use by another item or question, such as whether respondents
have been absent during the past month, may give you slightly different estimates
since not all respondents may have answered attendance question.
For questions where respondents could choose more than one answer, each response
option is shown as a separate variable. No recoding was done to make responses mutually
exclusive and sum to 100%. This means that a particular respondent could be included
in multiple response categories. This provides more granular detail and makes smaller
groups more visible by not lumping them into larger groups.
You will need to look at each response option separately to see the percentage that
selected that particular response.
For example, respondents were able to select more than one race or ethnicity in
the following question:
What is your race or ethnicity? You can choose more than one.
- American Indian or Alaska Native
- Asian
- Black or African American
- Hispanic or Latino/a/x
- Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
- Middle Eastern
- North African
- White
- Something else fits better (Please specify)
- I am not sure
- I don’t know what this question is asking
- I prefer not to answer
You will need to select each response option (American Indian or Alaska Native,
Asian, Black of African American, etc.) separately to see the percentage that identified
with each group.
Some drop down choices may not be available due to a small number of participants.
Currently, county data for any grade falling below 50 students will not be shown
to protect respondent confidentiality. Additionally, demographic groups with fewer
than 10 students will also not be shown.