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The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study wanted to measure the academic progress of more than twenty thousand people from kindergarten through fifth grade. These people were chosen from across the US to represent an accurate cross section of American schoolchildren. The ECLS gathered typical information about each child such as race, gender, family structure, economic status, level of guardians education, as well as an interview with guardians along with teachers and administrators. They asked questions like whether the parents spanked their children or not; and how often; if they took them to museums or libraries; how much time was spent watching TV. ECLS used this data with many variables involved, some related and others not, to tell a “reliable story”.
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 tool that uses statistical techniques to find correlations. Correlation is just a term that identifies whether 2 variables relate or “move together”. This enables an economist to sort out large quantities of data, holding constant every variable except the 2 he wants to focus on, then shows how the 2 co-vary. From this information, he must decide which factors are correlated and which are not. For the ECLS data they converted each of the twenty thousand children into a circuit board with the same number of switches. Each switch represented a single category of the child’s data such as, 1st grade math score and reading score, 3rd grade math score and reading score, mother’s education level, father’s income, and so on. Now a researcher is more aware from a complicated set of data, they can line up all of the children who share characteristics, switch flipped in the same direction, and then pinpoint a single characteristic that is not shared. This is how they can isolate the real impact of a single switch on the circuit board.
Hint: A correct answer must have a discussion on causality versus correlation. A drawback of regression analysis could be that it involves a long and complicated procedure of analysis and calculations. The relationship that is established between any 2 or more variables on limited data may not hold good if more and more data is being taken into consideration. Regression analysis can show correlation, but it does not prove a cause. It is easily affected by any form of outliers.
Hint: See page 150.
The quality of schools plays a role in the academic performance of students. A typical white child in this study attends a school with only 6 percent black; the typical black child attends a school that has about 60 percent black. In terms of class size, teachers education, computer to student ratio, and more, the schools attended by both blacks and whites are similar. But a typical black student’s school has more distractions such as gangs, non students being on campus, etc. These schools environment is not a good place to learn. According to this data, black or white, a child’s school does impact academic progress. No matter the race, student’s attending a “bad” school will be outperformed by students attending a “good” school majority.
Hint: For this question, you may need additional information in addition to the assigned reading. You may Google search something like “how does regression control for variables”.
Regression automatically controls for every variable in the model. When you look at the effect of 1 variable, you are holding constant all of the other variables. You could control for the quality of schools in the study by finding other factors positively correlated with quality of schools.
Regression analysis is a beneficial tool that can be used to figure out information on certain topics. It helps correlate information and data about situations to grasp a better understanding to why something is the way it is. It has some drawbacks, but it is a good tool offered.
Hint: Use message, echo and results in the chunk options. Refer to the RMarkdown Reference Guide.