Data Desgin - Essay Example

1. Showing the scores as a percentile rank would let each know the percentage of scores which are lower than their own. If a scored in the 75% percentile, that student would know that their score was greater than 75% of the rest of the scores.
2. With input from my boss, I would identify a sampling of other expenses that are comparable; for instance, consumable items whose cost was already being tracked separately since the cost of compiling information on such a relatively small item would outweigh the benefit of having the information. Then I would calculate the percentage of change of these expenses over a long enough period to smooth seasonal fluctuations and display them on a line graph, which is easy to interpret. The slope of the line of the office supplies compared to similar items consumed in the department would show whether my boss' assertion was true or not.
3. I would display the data in the form of a standard bell curve. This would reveal the average reading level of the students, which would be an appropriate target for a curriculum if all other things were equal. However, this type of distribution display would also show if there other factors to take into account, such as a significant number of "outlier" scores, or skewness, or large standard deviations.
4. Though the city council asked for the average, averages can be severely influenced by unusually low or high scores, so I would also give them the mode, because by knowing the most frequent score, they would know at what income level the largest number of people would be affected by any social program with income qualifications or cut-off points that the city council might consider.
5. The standard deviation. If it is large, it means that a large number of the countries did not experience a number of coups that is close to the mean for the region.
6. I would compile minimum funding level requests/requirements for all the agencies the organization supports, then compare those levels to the funding granted by the organization. By comparing the percentage differences between the two for all agencies, and displaying the information in the form of a bar graph showing how many agencies received 100% or more of their request, how many received 80% to 99%, etc., a pattern, if there was one, would show up with startling clarity.
For instance, it might show that 40 out of 50 agencies received 75% or less of their requested funding, while 25% received over 75% of their requested funding. This would be evidence of unequal allocation, and might require further inquiry into what the "favored" agencies had in common; were they social programs that helped children Some needs might legitimately be considered more urgent than others. However, if the agencies have in common that the board members go to lunch with these agency principals more often than the principals of other agencies, than the problem might be a bias of access and not enough proactive investigation on the part of the board members into all agencies' needs.
7. To know which individual professors' attitudes were similar to mine, I would need to know which ones scored above a certain level in authoritarianism, like 85% percentile or higher.
Questionnaire questions: Just before or at the time you dropped out of high school:
1. Were you (if female) or your girlfriend (if male) pregnant
2. Were you using or had you recently been using drugs or alcohol
3. Had you been absent from school more than 10 times in the previous month
4. Did you feel that finishing high school was not worth the effort
5. Were your friends performing at an average or higher level in school
Demographic question: Does at least one of your parents have a high school diploma or higher Read More