At 12:41 PM 10/5/01 -0500, Christopher J. Mecklin wrote:
>(4) If the Massachusetts Department of Education really wants to include a >boxplot item on the test, it should either be a multiple choice question >written so that the correct answer is the same no matter which type of >boxplot one was taught, or an open-ended question where the students >actually create boxplots for 2 data sets and compare/contrast the 2 >distributions. The readers then should be aware of both types of boxplots >when assessing the question. > >That's my two cents, anyway actually, i think the above is worth at least 3 cents but, the main issue re: boxplots ... is the fact that a boxplot indicates a median in the "box", rather than a mean (say) in the "box" ... really really important ENOUGH to waste an entire question (1 in 6 about statistical things) on a test that is such high stakes? seems like iF you wanted to use a boxplot as a data reporting tool ... within the context of an item on a test like this ... that, you would focus on something important like: spread of scores, or ... what is an approximate average value, or ... whether the distribution seems to be symmetrical or skewed ... ============================================================== dennis roberts, penn state university educational psychology, 8148632401 http://roberts.ed.psu.edu/users/droberts/drober~1.htm ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list and remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES are available at http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ =================================================================
