The Wisconsin school project was a very interesting project to do. There was a lot of information that we collected about the schools that we researched. We were able to get a small snapshot of what that school was like based on a few different things. These were school size/per pupil spending, attendance rates, graduation rates, average teacher wages/benefits, standardized test scores, diversity of students, percentage of special needs students, special ed program provided, free/reduced lunch percentage, extra/co-curricular opportunities. All of this information was collected for every single school in Marinette and Oconto county.

However, this project was not all about just gathering information and putting it into a spreadsheet. One thing I learned from this project is that there are a lot of different aspects that go into characterizing a school. When I thought about schools before this project I was not thinking about all of these different aspects. There was so much more information around the research that we were doing as well that we never touched. It makes it hard for me to characterize schools into a certain category because they all have something different about them. Whether it be the diversity of students, proficiency in core curriculum, free lunch late etc. Not a single school that we looked at was the same. I also was able to gauge what the demographic of the counties were. I think that this was good information to know since it is a place that I could go and work at in the future. I think that is very valuable since knowing more about a potential gives me a good idea whether it would be the right place for me or not.

One thing this project also taught me was how to find research about schools and school districts. It is a certain type of research because there is not one exact place to find everything you need. I had to visit many different places to find the information that I was looking for. From school report cards to going onto school websites to find the sports and extracurricular activities offered. We also got taught how to use new resources to find widespread information on a map. It allows us to use certain filters to search what we are looking for throughout the entire state of Wisconsin.

Overall, the Wisconsin school project was a valuable project to do. It not only made me aware of information about schools that I could potentially work at. It also gave me new skills when it comes to finding information. It was tough to find information sometimes, however it payed off in the end when all of the information was found.