A University Administrator has some data on student performance in a set of cour
ID: 3503585 • Letter: A
Question
A University Administrator has some data on student performance in a set of courses. She finds out that sections with honors students were over sampled, so that data are most likely skewed. She wants to report the data with a measure of central tendency in both numerical and graphical form. What are the measures of central tendency that she has to choose from? Which one would be most appropriate and why? What would be the most appropriate way to graph these data?
A University Administrator has some data on student performance in a set of courses. She finds out that sections with honors students were over sampled, so that data are most likely skewed. She wants to report the data with a measure of central tendency in both numerical and graphical form. What are the measures of central tendency that she has to choose from? Which one would be most appropriate and why? What would be the most appropriate way to graph these data?
Explanation / Answer
The University Administrator can choose from three measures of central tendency: mean, median and mode. However, since we know that the data is skewed, it recommended that she chooses the median. In a normal distribution, the value of the mean, median and mode are more or less the same. However, as the data becomes skewed the mean loses its ability to provide the best central location for the data because the skewed data is dragging it away from the typical value. The median, on the other hand, best retains this position and is not as strongly influenced by the skewed values. A bar diagram or histogram would be the most appropriate way to graph these data.
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