As a researcher for the Department of Education you have been asked to determine whether there is a relationship between demographic variables and level of academic achievement as measured

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Assignment 3: Descriptive Analysis II

STEPS FOR DESCRIPTIVE DATA ANALYSIS

OVERVIEW: This assignment is designed to give you real world experiencing running a data analysis project on a research question of interest to a stakeholder. The data for this lab can be found by clicking the “class data” link found on the canvas home page. WHAT TO DO: Before you begin this assignment, you must watch this week’s videos. This week’s lab requires that you run your frequencies, central tendency, variability and two new methods graphs and crosstabs. Please review the videos from week1 for frequencies and week 2 for central tendency and variability, and week 3’s videos graphs and cross-tabs. WHAT TO SUBMIT: Upload a word document containing your write up and pasted graphs from SPSS at the end of your document. For full points make sure your write up follows the example provided at the end of the steps.

WHERE TO SUBMIT: Canvas under Week 3 SPSS lab submission. ______________________________________________________________________________

ANALYSIS STEPS

Purpose of Study As a researcher for the Department of Education you have been asked to determine whether there is a relationship between demographic variables and level of academic achievement as measured by degree earned. Based on the current research on demographics and education you decide to analyze the relationship between degree earned and marital status, place of birth, work status and income in order to determine whether differences in these categories determine degree outcomes. The Department of Education believes this information can help make important social policy decision so remember to makes sure your report is well written and complete. Research Questions and Hypothesis

1. Is there a relationship between degree and marital status, place of birth, work status and income in the GSS?

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2. There is no hypothesis for this assignment. Measures (Variables) DEGREE, WRKSTAT, MARITAL, BORN, INCOME Analysis Strategy Using the dataset provided you will conduct a demographic analysis as follows: First, run frequencies (including graphs) on your demographic variables : work status [WRKSTAT], marital [MARITAL], born [BORN], and income [INCOME] for the population who took this analysis. Second, run descriptives. This would include central tendency (mean, median or mode) and where appropriate standard deviation. Note in the future you can do this at the same time as your frequencies. This information should be used to describe the population who responded to the survey. Third, repeat step 1 and 2 on your main study variable level of education (DEGREE). Note: These are the new techniques for week 3 Fourth, run the appropriate graph for each of your variables in this study. (Note, in the future you can select graphs when you run your frequencies). Fifth, run the following 4 cross tabs: 1) DEGREE by WRKSTAT, 2) DEGREE by MARITAL, 3) DEGREE by BORN, 4) DEGREE by INCOME Finally, using the results from your analysis write a summary of your findings as described in the “What to submit section”. Results Using the results from your analysis above (step one and two) write a summary of your findings as described in the “What to submit” section. Here you will report the results of your findings using the correct scientific notation. You can find an example of this notation in the report format outline below. The results section will be short and concise. You will expand on the findings in your discussion. Discussion

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Review your results. What are the implications of your research findings. What information did your study reveal and how does it help to understand the population you are generalizing to? What did you find interesting? Remember, this information will go to the congressional budget office so make sure it is well written and complete.

WHAT TO SUBMIT AND RESEARCH REPORT FORMAT

Report Outline (Headings in Bold) Title Page: Provide a creative title for your report, Your Name, Course Number and Name, Professor’s Name and Date.

Purpose: In this section clearly describe why this study is necessary. Clear statement of where the data came from (The GSS), how data was collected, (ie surveys, interviews) and total number of respondents in your analysis. State the research questions and if applicable state the null hypothesis. I have provided some of this information in the lab assignment instructions. (1 paragraph) Measures: This section describes how you will measure each of the hypothesis. If applicable to this lab correctly state the hypothesis and what variables are associated with the hypothesis. Next describe how each of the variables are operationalized (nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio) and the response categories. (1 paragraph)

Analysis Strategy: In this section describe the logical sequence of statistical steps that you used to answer the hypothesis. Here you need to correct statistical methods for the correct variable(s). (3-4 sentences in this first lab) Results: In this section report the findings of each of your statistical analysis using the correct technical format. Here are examples of the correct technical reporting method for this week’s analysis: (2-3 paragraphs) NOTE: FOR THE PURPOSE OF REDUCING THE TIME SPENT ON THIS LAB, YOU DO NOT NEED TO WRITE OUT THE RESULTS OF THE DEMOGRAPHICS AND DESCRIPTIVES. FOCUS ON WRITING THE RESULTS OF THE CROSS TABS. INCLUDE YOUR GRAPHS AND CROSS TABS IN THE APPENDICES.

Example of how to report your frequency results Three hundred and fourteen respondents completed the survey instrument, 179 males (59%) and 134 females (43%). The respondents’ ages ranged from 17-50, with a mean of 21 years (M=21). The majority of respondents were Anglo-American (76.4%), followed by Hispanic-Americans (13.69%), African Americans (50.9%), Asian-Americans (1.9%), and Native-Americans (1.59%). (Example from Leach & Braithwiate, 1996, p. 204, as cited in Morgan, Reichert & Harrison, (2001)). Example of how to report your central tendency and if applicable variability In this study, for the cross-sectional sample, children are defined as those 19 years or younger. The average age of children during the three cross-sectional waves was 15.2 years (SD=2.15) at baseline, 14.9 years (SD=2.06) during intervention, and 14.7 years (SD=2.22) at follow-up. Of the sample, 51% at

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baseline, 46% during intervention, and 45% at follow up were girls. (Example from: Rimal & Flora, 1998, p. 617, as cited in Morgan, Reichert & Harrison, (200)). Example of how to report your cross-tabs Four hundred respondents completed the survey, 250 undergraduates (65%) and 150 graduates (35%). Of the respondents who identified as undergraduates 100 (40%) indicated that they worked full time.

Discussion: In this section summarize your findings, the implication of your findings in connection to the research question, critical thinking around the importance and meaning of your findings and connect your findings back to the research question guiding the study. (1-2 paragraphs)

Appendices: Copy and paste relevant tables and graphs produced by the analysis into the appendices. These tables and graphs should match what is reported in the results section.

WHERE TO SUBMIT: Canvas under Week 3 SPSS Lab.

Checklist: Your assignment should contain the following

1) Completed write up of your assignment.

2) Pasted tables and graphs from SPSS at the end of your document.

3) Upload assignment on Canvas under Week 3 SPSS Lab by the due date.