About the RT Graphing for the RSA-911
Analysis Summary
The RSA-911 data sets for FY 1997 to FY 2004 were obtained from RSA as plain text files with the social security numbers already removed. Separate scripts were written in SPSS for Windows for FY 1997-2001 and FY 2002-2004 because of the differences in the policy directives that dictated their formats. The scripts imported the data from the fixed width field format of the plain text files into fields within SPSS, identified where data appeared to be missing, performed calculations for the states, added national averages, and then output the data to summary data sets with a record entry for each year for each state and the national average. If a state or territory submitted data for more than one agency, that data was merged for that state. While the fields that are graphed for the data sets for FY 1997-2001 and FY 2002-2004 were assigned the same names, the two data sets have not been combined because it has not yet been determined how the major overhaul in the policy directive starting in FY 2002 affected how data was collected. Thus, further analysis or normalization is likely needed to compare data directly between the two periods.
Graphing Summary
This dynamic web-base application allows you to create graphs from amongst thousands of different possible combinations of the data. It performs look-ups (queries) in our summary data sets for FY 1997-2001 and FY 2002-2004 based on the selections you as a user make, but it does not perform any real-time calculations. Additional relational tables have been added for the purpose of the website to convert coded values, such as state abbreviations, to the corresponding state and territory names.
The graphs are generated with the graphing capabilities built into the ColdFusion server-based scripting language. We have attempted innovative solutions to several of the accessibility issues that we encountered.