MATH 170 - Applied Statistics
Project # 3: Linear Regression
DUE by 8:00 a.m. Wednesday, November 29th, 2006
Your Objective:
“Is School Performance Related to Spending?” The data set for this project provides an example of the
types of data that public policy makers consider when making decisions and crafting arguments. Your
objective is to first, answer this question for yourself, then write a short persuasive letter to your state
representative regarding this issue. Make sure that you include each of the following in your letter:
Requirements for Letter:
1. You must use and reference aSCATTERPLOT and a LEAST SQUARES REGRESSION
LINE that is appropriate for your argument.
2. You must use and reference at least TWO other different types of graphical displays in
your letter, such as boxplots, dotplots, histograms.
3. You must use and reference at least THREE numerical measures (mean, median, standard
deviation, quartiles, etc.) to support your argument.
4. You must generate both the graphs and numerical measures with either Fathom or MINITAB.
5. Your letter must be typed, and professional in appearance and composition, and submitted via
WebCT. Images and tables are to be included in this document.
6. Make sure that you have the correct name and address of your local representative in your letter.
(You will not be mailing this letter as part of your assignment.)
The Data:
The data set is available on WebCT with the project assignment as a Fathom file and as a MINITAB
file, and it was taken from the UCLA Statistics Course Data Sets at www.stat.ucla.edu/data/. The
data includes eight variables:
STATE: name of state
COST: current expenditure per pupil (measured in thousands of dollars per average daily attendance
in public elementary and secondary schools)
RATIO: average pupil/teacher ratio in public elementary and secondary schools during Fall 1994
SALARY: estimated average annual salary of teachers in public elementary and secondary schools
during 1994-95 (in thousands of dollars)
PERCENT: percentage of all eligible students taking the SAT in 1994-95
VERBAL: average verbal SAT score in 1994-95
MATH: average math SAT score in 1994-95
TOTAL: average total score on the SAT in 1994-95
