PED 111 : Assessment of Learning 1

TEACHER: ELENA B. MOHAMMAD

Unit 4 – Analysis and Interpretation of Assessment Results Data Presentation

Measures of Variability
Part 2 – Standard Deviation & Variation

I. Introduction

Measures of dispersion describe the spread of data around a central value (mean,
median or mode). There are two measures of dispersion: range (where you subtract the lowest
score from the highest score), mean deviation (MD - how far, on average, all values are from
the middle), standard deviation (SD - which calculates the spread of scores around the mean)
and variance (measures variability from the average or mean).

II. Objectives

At the end of this activity, you should be able to:

1. Be familiar with the different measures of dispersion;
2. Compute the standard deviation and variance of a given data;
3. Decide which measure of dispersion should be used for certain types of data;
4. Use a calculator in computing for the standard deviation and variance of a set of data;

III. Development of the Lesson

There are four measures of dispersion the range, mean deviation, standard deviation
and variance.

C. STANDARD DEVIATION

The standard deviation s is the square root of the mean of the squared deviations from the
mean of the distribution. That is,

𝑠 = √∑(𝑥𝐼 − 𝑥̅ )2
𝑖=1

𝑛−1

Page 1 of 4
 where 𝑥𝑖 = a value in the set of data
𝑥̅ = mean of the set of data
𝑛 = number of observations

Example:
Solve for the standard deviation of the physics test given in the table above.
Solution:
As in the mean deviation, we will again construct a table of values, this time with
squared deviations.

STANDARD SQUARED DEVIATIONS OF THE PHYSICS TEST

𝑥𝑖 𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥̅̅ (𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥̅̅ )2

10 0 0
8 -2 4
9 -1 1
12 2 4
10 0 0
7 -3 9
10 0 0
9 -1 1
14 4 16
11 1 1
36

The standard deviation is the most important measure of dispersion. It is affected by

the value of each observation. It is the most stable and is, therefore, the most reliable
measure of variability. In fact, the standard deviation together with the variance is the only
measure of variability used for statistical inferences like those correlation and standard score.

Page 2 of 4
 36 36
Hence, the standard deviations is 𝑠 = √ = √ = √4 = 2.
10−1 9

D. VARIANCE
The variance measures the variability from the average or mean. It also refers to a
statistical measurement of the spread between numbers in a set. It measures how far each
number in the set is from the mean and thus from every other number in the set.

𝑛
where: 𝒙𝒊 = variable data
𝑠 = ∑(𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥̅ )2
2
̅ = arithmetic mean
𝒙
𝑖=1 = absolute value taking the positive
value of the given deviations
𝑛−1 𝒏 = number of observations

VARIANCE OF THE PHYSICS TEST

𝑥𝑖 𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥̅̅ (𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥̅̅ )2

10 0 0
8 -2 4
9 -1 1
12 2 4
10 0 0
7 -3 9
10 0 0
9 -1 1
14 4 16
11 1 1
36

36 36
The variance for this set of data is 𝑠 2 = 10−1 = =4
9

Page 3 of 4
II Work/Practice Exercise . Answer the following on your notebook.

Due on December 16, 2022 (Friday). Please post it under assignment in our Microsoft team.

A. Compute for the standard deviation and variance of the math scores: 11, 10, 12, 10, 6, 3, 6, 7, 17, 14

𝑥𝑖 𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥̅ (𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥̅ )2

B. Find also the variance of math scores.

III. Reference

 STATISTICS & PROBABILILTY. Core Subject. Teaching Guide for Senior High School.
CHED, 2016

 BASIC STATISTICS. Monzon-Ybanez. Phoenix Publishing

Page 4 of 4