Erin Batta, a student research worker for the Public Policy Research Institute, brought a dream to life. She played a key role in the development of an Adolescent Data Dashboard, which contains data for youth across the state of Texas. Graduation rates, # of youth insured, pregnancy rates, and family dynamics are just a small portion of what she was able to include the dashboard. Below is some information about why Erin is excited about this project, and what she hopes it can do for communities. Once you finish, check out the Adolescent Data Dashboard here!

As a statistics student working at the Public Policy Research Institute, I have worked on numerous projects covering a wide range of topics. One of the most interesting of these was the project of creating a Tableau dashboard displaying data on adolescents in Texas. This project stood out to me because as a statistics major, I tend to work mostly on quantitative tasks, and this was a great opportunity to focus on something a little more creative and open-ended.

The goal of the Adolescent Data Dashboard was to gather health and well-being data from various sources into one clean, user-friendly report so that this data is more accessible to the public. While many different datasets using various age ranges were included, the focus was to increase the accessibility of information about adolescents aged 10-24, as this population is often overlooked.

The main page of this dashboard shows a map of Texas with various indicators that a user can choose from and view on a county level. To provide some direction for users, the indicators are categorized as health, education, socioeconomic, crime, demographic, or environmental. This wide range allows people to learn about topics from arrest rates to child mortality rates to high school dropout rates, all in one place. Additionally, users can click on any county and view an in-depth report of all the statistics for that county, Texas on average, and a second county of their choice for comparison. Lastly, the dashboard shows line graphs of these same indicators over time for any county.

While I had used Tableau before, the process of creating this complex, interactive dashboard gave me an amazing opportunity to experiment with different ideas and learn how to be creative with it. It also gave me insight into the necessity for such a product to be created. As I researched and scoured the internet for data, I saw first-hand how difficult it is to find data for this unique population. Additionally, even if such data is available, it often is only recorded at the state level and not the county level. Because of that, it became clear to me how important it is to consolidate data from various sources into one place to make it clearer to the public. Going forward, this dashboard will allow people to more clearly understand the level of health and well-being among adolescents, not just in a general sense, but specifically in each community.