Tips for Approaching a Basic Database Creation Task
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For context, I am a rising sophomore pursuing a degree in Computer Science. On the side, I do some volunteer work with a private middle school in the area; knowing my background, the headmaster of the school has asked me to help him with putting together a database in order to track student progress on a series of standardized examinations. While I feel I am fairly skilled in what tools I've learned (Java, Haskell), I have little experience working with database systems. I guess, in the end, I am ultimately asking you all (surely more experienced than myself in such matters) for some pointers and possible leads for further development. 

The database we're putting together doesn't need to be terribly fancy. The children range from first through eighth grade, with each child having one test administration for each school year. The tests each carry some general data for that test administration (percentile scores, standard deviation, tested IQ, etc.), as well as a collection of scores for various sub-skills (e.g. Mathematics, which is then further broken down into arithmetic, geometry, etc.). There is some variance in the listed sub-skills by age group (Spelling is not tested after third grade, for example), but ultimately the idea is that this system should be usable to track student progress year-over-year in both the general data as well as those sub-skills that are common over multiple test administrations.

Conceptually, this all isn't that bad; my main queries are regarding the best tools for the job. 

 - The school has Access, and exclusively used Windows computers; do you think it would be best to format this as an Access database, or to use some other sort of relational database system? If so, what would you recommend?

 - One feature that was requested was the ability to import and export data via Excel documents; I understand that there are Java libraries that could help with this, as well as that Access apparently has some support for this cooked in. What would you recommend using for this?

- I have considered simply making a basic front-end with Java, mainly out of experience. It would simply allow for viewing the files for various students in the database, as well as for observing trending data among students and individuals. Are there any tools that may help with this that I may be unaware of, or is this something I am going to have to simply tackle on my own?

Links to any documentation or information on working with whatever you all suggest would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks!
