You must follow the instructions below to get credits for this assignment.
Hint: Make sure to discuss study’s goal, subjects, and variables in the data.
The ECLS wanted to measure the academic progress of more than twenty thousand children from kindergarten through the fifth grade. The goal was the measure their academic progress through the grades.The children were chosen from all over the country. Some variables in the data included are the children’s race, gender, family structure, socioeconomic status etc. This study also includes interviews with parents, teachers and academic administrators (147).
Hint: A correct answer must have a discussion on a main concept of regression, often called as, “all else being equal”, “controlling for other variables”, or “Ceteris paribus”. The author explained this concept using “the circuit board analogy”.
Regression analysis is a way of correctly sorting out data to determine which variables have an impact on the problem at hand.Ceteris paribus states that when you notice the affects of one variable, you hold all other independent variables constant. In this case, it is figuring out the academic progress in children from kindergarten through fifth grade. Regression analysis is the tool that enables an economist to sort out these huge piles of data (148). For example, if I wanted to figure out correlation with the spread of coronavirus. I wouldnt be able to determine the cause, but I could research the variables that have positive or negative correlation with it.
Hint: A correct answer must have a discussion on causality versus correlation.
A drawback of regression analysis is that it can demonstrate correlation, but not the cause (149). Regression analysis cannot answer questions based soley on causality. The cause of the correlation found through the regression analysis requires other research. For example, “does a child with a lot of books in his home tend to do better than a child with no books? The difference between the first and second questions is the difference between causality” (149).
Hint: See page 150.
The quality of schools plays a big part in the academic performance of students in this study due to a far higher rate of troublesome factors in a typical black student’s school. These troublesome factors are not in ways in which a school is traditionally measured (class size, teacher education, etc) they are measured by gang problems, nonstudents loitering outside the school and lack of PTA funding. “But all students in a bad school, black and white, do lose ground to students in good schools” (150)
Hint: For this question, you may need additional information in addition to the assigned reading. You may Google search someting like “how does regression control for variables”.
In regression analysis when you look at one variables effects, you are keeping all other variables constant. In this case study, we will be controlling the quality of the schools by trying to create a better learning environment for some of the “bad” schools. Help with PTA funding, increase level of security by these elementary schools to eliminate gang issues and unnecessary loitering around school property. Help to create a stronger, more positive learning environment so that these children can get as much of a chance at a strong education than those with a higher socioeconomic status.
Some major takeaways that I got from this reading are that there are not always one exact reason why something is the way it is. Multiple different factors and correlations go into why someone/something is the way they are. In this case study we saw a variety of different correlations and there are still more yet to be interpreted. “A regression analysis can demonstrate correlation, but it doesn’t prove cause. After all, there are several ways in which two variables can be correlated. X can cause Y; Y can cause X; or it may be that some other factor is causing both X and Y.”(149). This proved to be an extremely eye opening activity during a time like this were there are multiple correlations and factors consistently changing daily.
Hint: Use message, echo and results in the chunk options. Refer to the RMarkdown Reference Guide.