Question

Setting:

The city of Valley Grove is considering shortening the length of the school day. The school board hired Mr. Kent to do a survey to help them decide what to do.

What I have to answer:

a. Mr. Kent interviewed 54 students as they left the school. Is this a random sample? Explain.

b. Mr. Kent used this survey question: "Should the lengthy school day, which now extends for 7.5 hours, be shortened to 6 hours?" Is this question biased or fair? Explain.

c. Of the 54 responses he received, 51 were "yes." The rest were "no." What percent of the responses were "no"?

Answer 1

a. Mr. Kent interviewed the 54 students as they are going to leave the school, it is not considered to be a random sample. It is because a random sample is when a set is taken from a population. Mr. Kent interviewed the 54 who are going to leave, meaning, he didn't take a set out of that 54, he took all of them. So it is not a random sample.

b. The question that Mr. Kent asked is considered to be a leading question, so it does not seem biased.

c. If there are 54 respondents.
51 = yes, the rest is no.
= 54 - 51 = 3
= 3 is now divided to 54 = 3/54
= giving an answer of 0.0555
= 0.0555 x 100
= 5.6%
= The percent of responses that says 'no' is 5.6%