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.
In the late 1990’s, the U.S. Department of Education created the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study with the idea to measure the academic process of children between kindergarten and fifth grade. Each student’s academic performance was measured while personal information - including the race, gender, family structure, socioeconomic status, level of parents’ education, etc. was gathered. In addition, the families were interviewed to see how often the children were disciplined at home and if they often visited libraries or museums. These variables were catagorized to compose regression analysis. The ECL’s ultimate goal was to answer the question “just how much, and in what ways, do parents really matter?”. By the end of the project, it was determined that there was a positive correlation between children that read books themselves or are read to by their parents. These children performed higher on tests than their peers. Additionally, it was found that different types of parenting styles affected the success of the children in positive and negative ways.
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 statistical concept in which a change in one variable is caused by another variable changing. For example, the author of this article describes this information with the comparison of a circuit board. In this example, the children were thought of as circuit boards with identical switches that represented personal information and that controlled other variables. With the flick of a switch, the researchers could isolate which variables made the children unique.
Hint: A correct answer must have a discussion on causality versus correlation.
A drawback of Regression Analysis would be that it is typically only able to determine correlations by linking together variables rather than the actual results. Due to this, it is unable to determine concrete causality. This can be exemplified by the ECL’s study on children where it was determined that children that had books in their homes performed better than other children. Of course, owning a book does not make you smarter if you do not read the book. Instead, the Regression Analysis only showed a correlation between owning books and perfoming better in school. Therefore, Regression Analysis cannot answer HOW owning books makes the children better in school, but instead displays statistical evidence simply stating that they do.
Hint: See page 150.
By measuring the schools in a more traditional manner, by terms of classs size, teacher’s education, and computer to student ratio, most schools attended by blacks and whites are similar. However, the quality of the school seems to reflect on the performance of the students in that if a student attends a “bad” school. Bad schools, which are more likely to show troublesome indicators such as gang problems or lack of PTA funding, offer poorer environments for the students to learn, thus resulting in them performing worse academically. The author even mentions how “black students in good schools outperform whites in bad schools” on page 150, which further proves that it is likely the environment that dictates a student’s academic progress than it is the student being smarter or dumber than other students.
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”.
To control for the quality of the schools, you could keep all variables how they are currently and then look at their individual effects on the school. Next you can change one of the variables, such as the low PTA funding for example, to determine the effect on the school after the change. This regression can be performed by altering all of the individual factors - one at a time - in order to determine the root of the school’s issue. As stated on page 150, “a child’s school does seem to have a clear impact on his academic progress, at least in the early years”. This reflects that if the school’s quality can be changed for the better, the students in attendance may perform better.
The major takeaways from the reading would be a basic concept first of what Regression Analysis is and an example of how it can be applied in life. In addition, the story proved an interesting read because a reader may takeaway how else Regression Analysis can be implemented should they enter a business in the future. For example, in a managerial position, someone may use Regression Analysis to determine ways their sales could improve by determining what is working versus what is not working, and how to fix this issue. Even outside of the business world, it is important to take the message specifically from this story of trying to adopt the habits that set up a child for success in the future.
Hint: Use message, echo and results in the chunk options. Refer to the RMarkdown Reference Guide.