Statistics and Probability SACE

Folio Task
By Tiff Szabo
Staff members of the same high school often debate about how their faculty is doing better
than the other faculties. This is often the case between science and maths teachers, claiming
that their subject has a better grade than the other. Tryhard Highs staff members decided to
investigate claims of the maths students havent made any progress since the previous year,
whether the science scores are better than the maths and then look at how Australia is doing in
comparison to other countries worldwide. These three main topics of interest were evaluated in
a statistical sense, using mainly box whisker plots.

For the claims about the maths students not progressing in their mathematical learning, a series
of statistical procedures were undertaken using the current years maths grades and previous
years grades were compared. These were compared by looking at the mean, median and mode of
each of the years, drawing histograms, creating box and whisker plots and looking at the
standard deviation of the results. These statistical results can be found in the attached
documents from page 1 onwards.

Comparing the mean, median and mode is a useful way to see different ways of interpreting the
two sets of data together. This can be by seeing which year had the highest repetition of a
single score in the students grades. It can also be used to see what the spread of the results
are by finding the exact middle of the grades. The mean however is the best one of the three
statistical terms to use when comparing grades together. This is because the mean is the
average score or grade that all the students in one year.

The claim that students hadnt progressed in their learning is incorrect for the results given by
Tryhard High because the average, or mean, grade for the previous year (year 1) is 13.48, while
the mean for the current year (year 2) is 18.23. The average of the grades have increased by a
total of 4.75.

Histograms on page 1 also shows that the data for year 1 is negatively skewed, whilst year 2 has
an even distribution of grades. The grades for year 1 were mainly in the first part of the
histogram, indicating that they were mainly lower grades, whilst year 2 has more of an even
spread of its data, with the largest amounts of the grades being in the middle of the histogram.
Year 2 also contains grades higher and lower than the middle section of the histogram, showing
an even spread of all grades.

The box whisker plots that are displayed in the other work attached following the histograms
also show the distribution of the grades that were given for both year 1 and year 2. These are
easy ways to visually see the main distribution of the grades (the box) and the lowest and
highest grades that were also gained (the whiskers). The middle line in the box is the median,
which is the most occurring number in a set of data.

About the claims that science is doing better than maths and vice versa, a five number summary,
mean, standard deviation and a box whisker plot were made comparing the data points. A five
number summary contains the minimum of the data set, the interquartile points 1, 2 (also the
median) and 3 and the maximum of the data set.

Five number summaries were used to create the box whisker plots, which the year 2 maths box
whisker plot was compared to the science box whisker plot, and therefore the five number
summary. The box whisker plots show when compared that the maximum grade achieved was 36,
from the science grade. The science interquartile range is also one mark more than the maths
range, and is from 20 28 whilst the maths is only 15 22. Sciences minimum grade was 8,
whilst the minimum maths grade was 6.

The standard deviation of a data set is how much each piece of data deviates from the median
number of the data set. The standard deviations of the state maths and science grades were
given, and then Tryhard Highs standard deviation were worked out. These were then subtracted
to find the difference between both standard deviations.

Claims that Australia is slipping behind in Maths and Science in comparison to the rest of the
world is bogus. A claim in 2012 was made that Australias results in the Program for
International Student Assessment (PISA) testing was showing that Australia is slipping behind
other major countries. It was said that this testing that started in 2000 was displaying
worrisome results of the 15 year olds tested in comparison to the other 64 countries tested.
Australias results have decreased slightly from the previous years of testing, placing Australia
in equal place 17th for maths and equal place 8th for science. These results are obviously not the
highest they could possibly be, but that doesnt mean that Australians are stupid and will not be
able to help the world in the future.

A total of 15 separate OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)

countries including Australia were chosen to find the sample results from the years 2003, 2006
and 2012. There was four variables compared, one student variable, and three school variables.
These variables were what language were the students speaking at home, the location of the
schools and focusing on the large city schools, and the shortages of maths and science teachers.
Only the maths and science scores were compared over the years. The location of the schools
variable was unable to be recorded for the 2006 results, because the results were not
published.

Australia over the years hasnt changed that dramatically, with an increase in certain specifics
of student or school variables. One increase in Australias education system is the support given
for students who do not speak the language of the test taken at home. This is important
because Australia has an ever increasing population of international citizens who do not all
necessarily speak English at home to each other and their families. This is more important in
perspective because Australia is adapting to accommodate their new citizens so that theyre
able to learn at the same rate as students who have the test language the same as the language
they speak at home.

The diagrams d, h and m given in the provided pages of diagrams display the results as box and
whisker plots comparing the results of the maths test and the language spoken at home and the
test taken. The no box and whisker plots are for the students who identified with speaking the
same language at home as the language of the test. The box and whisker plots titled yes are
the results of the students who identified as speaking a different language at home as the
language of the test. The comparisons show that the students who identified with speaking a
different language at home did worse in their test results in comparison to the students who
spoke the same language at home as the test.

In the diagrams e, i and n the results of the science test taken and the language spoken at home
in comparison to the language of the test. These results again use the no box and whisker plot
as the results of the students who identify with speaking the same language at home as the
test, and the yes box and whisker plot are the results of the students who identify with
speaking a different language at home to the language of the test. The results of the students
who identified with speaking a different language at home had considerably lower test results
than those who spoke the same language at home. This is most likely caused because of the
language barrier that would be present with the scientific terms used in the language they are
not the most comfortable with.

In the category of what language is spoken at home and the results of the maths and science,
Australia was ranked in one of the highest, with an increasing score as the years increased. This
is visible in the diagrams through the markers stating Aus with a score given. The markers were
all either in line or ahead of the median line (middle line in the box whisker plot) in every set of
data, and box whisker plot.

Diagrams c, g and k display the shortage of science teachers, with the top box whisker plots
being a lot, being a large, unspecified number of shortages in science teachers and the second
being no shortage of science teachers, or not at all. Where no shortage of science teachers
were recorded in 2003 to 2012, there is a 6 mark difference in the Australian average grade.
This 6 mark difference is decreasing, from 538, to 532.

This trend however is not followed by the schools in Australia stating that they had a large
shortage of science teachers. These results have increased dramatically, from 2003 being only
504, to 2006 being 511 and 2012 having an average score of 527. This means that these average
grades have increased by 23 marks over a 9 year span. However the percentage of schools that
recorded a large shortage of sciences ranged between 1.8% and 2.8% in comparison to the range
of the schools recording they had no shortage of science teachers was between 48.1% and
52.3%.

The diagrams labelled b, g and l are box whisker plots comparing the average scores of schools
who recorded having a large shortage and no shortage of maths teachers. Australias average
scores for the schools who recorded having no shortage of maths teachers stayed at 535 for
both 2003 and 2006, but how dropped in 2012 down to 522, creating a difference of 13 marks.

The trend for the large shortage of maths teachers, Australias average scores were the same
for 2003 and 2012, being 488, but for 2006 the average was 498. This then gives this set of
data an interesting, symmetrical arch if these three points were graphed. The averages are the
lowest scores that Australia has within all of the variable being examined, which then reflects
Australias inability to match its standards in the science average scores.

The location, focusing on large cities, variable is displayed in box whisker plots containing the
maths and the science grades in a 5 number summary with Australias average outlined as well.
Because 2006s data for the location of the schools is unavailable, a fair comparison cannot be
made between 2003 and 2012. The box whisker plots are there however to serve as an
interesting development to read and a simple visual aid.

Taking into consideration all results that were discussed in this report, it can be assumed that
Australias average scores are decreasing in some aspects. These aspects are generally when
there was shortages in teachers or staff who are able to teach the maths or science classes.
Australia however appears to be focusing on its future, with the increased scores showing that
from 2003, more help has been focused on getting students who dont speak the language of the
test at home to be able to succeed better in their schooling in Australia. This is more likely to
be able to help Australia in the future because more of their population will be educated to a
higher standard, without having language barrier problems as much. There is an obvious sign
that Australias scores are decreasing slightly as time goes by, but it is still in one of the top
countries in the first 20 countries out of the 65 in the OECD.

In conclusion, Tryhard Highs maths students have improved since the previous year, by a
considerable amount, but the science grades are still higher than those of the maths. Australias
grading overall in the PISA report has decreased slightly over the years, but their education
towards new citizens has increased dramatically.