Educational Research

Chapter 11
Descriptive Statistics
Topics Discussed in this Chapter
 Preparing data for analysis
 Types of descriptive statistics
 Central tendency
 Variation
 Relative position
 Relationships
 Calculating descriptive statistics
Preparing Data for Analysis

 Issues
 Scoring procedures
 Tabulation and coding
 Use of computers
Scoring Procedures
 Instructions
 Standardized tests detail scoring instructions
 Teacher-made tests require the delineation of
scoring criteria and specific procedures
 Types of items
 Selected response items - easily and objectively
scored
 Open-ended items - difficult to score objectively
with a single number as the result
Objectives 1.1 & 1.2
Tabulation and Coding
 Tabulation is organizing data
 Identifying all information relevant to the analysis
 Separating groups and individuals within groups
 Listing data in columns
 Coding
 Assigning names to variables
 EX1 for pretest scores
 SEX for gender
 EX2 for posttest scores

Objectives 2.1, 2.2, & 2.3

Tabulation and Coding
 Reliability
 Concerns with scoring by hand and
entering data
 Machine scoring
 Advantages
 Reliable scoring, tabulation, and analysis
 Disadvantages
 Use of selected response items, answering on
scantrons

Objectives 1.4 & 1.5

Tabulation and Coding
 Coding
 Assigning identification numbers to
subjects
 Assigning codes to the values of non-
numerical or categorical variables
 Gender: 1=Female and 2=Male
 Subjects: 1=English, 2=Math, 3=Science, etc.
 Names: 001=John Adams, 002=Sally Andrews,
003=Susan Bolton, … 256=John Zeringue

Objectives 2.2 & 2.3

Computerized Analysis
 Need to learn how to calculate descriptive
statistics by hand
 Creates a conceptual base for understanding the
nature of each statistic
 Exemplifies the relationships among statistical
elements of various procedures
 Use of computerized software
 SPSS-Windows
 Other software packages
Objective 2.4
Descriptive Statistics
 Purpose – to describe or summarize
data in a parsimonious manner
 Four types
 Central tendency
 Variability
 Relative position
 Relationships

Objective 2.4
Descriptive Statistics
 Graphing data – a
frequency polygon
SCORE
5

 Vertical axis 4

represents the 3

frequency with which 2

a score occurs
Frequency
1
Std. Dev = 1.63

Horizontal axis
Mean = 6.0
 0 N = 16.00

represents the scores

3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0

SCORE

themselves

Objectives 3.1 & 3.2

Central Tendency
 Purpose – to represent the typical score
attained by subjects
 Three common measures
 Mode
 Median
 Mean

Objective 4.1
Central Tendency
 Mode
 The most frequently occurring score
 Appropriate for nominal data
 Median
 The score above and below which 50% of all
scores lie (i.e., the mid-point)
 Characteristics
 Appropriate for ordinal scales
 Doesn’t take into account the value of each and every
score in the data

Objectives 4.2, 4.3, & 4.4

Central Tendency
 Mean
 The arithmetic average of all scores
 Characteristics
 Advantageous statistical properties
 Affected by outlying scores
 Most frequently used measure of central
tendency
 Formula

Objectives 4.2, 4.3, & 4.4

Variability
 Purpose – to measure the extent to
which scores are spread apart
 Four measures
 Range
 Quartile deviation
 Variance
 Standard deviation
Objective 5.1
Variability
 Range
 The difference between the highest and
lowest score in a data set
 Characteristics
 Unstable measure of variability
 Rough, quick estimate

Objectives 5.2 & 5.3

Variability

 Quartile deviation
 One-half the difference between the upper
and lower quartiles in a distribution
 Characteristic - appropriate when the
median is being used

Objectives 5.2 & 5.3

Variability

 Variance
 The average squared deviation of all scores
around the mean
 Characteristics
 Many important statistical properties
 Difficult to interpret due to “squared” metric
 Formula

Objectives 5.2 & 5.3

Variability
 Standard deviation
 The square root of the variance
 Characteristics
 Many important statistical properties
 Relationship to properties of the normal curve
 Easily interpreted
 Formula

Objectives 5.2 & 5.3

The Normal Curve

 A bell shaped curve reflecting the

distribution of many variables of
interest to educators
 See Figure 14.2
 See the attached slide

Objective 6.1
The Normal Curve
 Characteristics
 Fifty-percent of the scores fall above the mean
and fifty-percent fall below the mean
 The mean, median, and mode are the same
values
 Most participants score near the mean; the further
a score is from the mean the fewer the number of
participants who attained that score
 Specific numbers or percentages of scores fall
between ±1 SD, ±2 SD, etc.
Objectives 6.1, 6.2, & 6.3
The Normal Curve
 Properties
 Proportions under the curve
 ±1 SD = 68%
 ±1.96 SD = 95%
 ±2.58 SD = 99%
 Cumulative proportions and percentiles

Objectives 6.3 & 6.4

Skewed Distributions
 Positive – many low scores and few high
scores
 Negative – few low scores and many high
scores
 Relationships between the mean, median,
and mode
 Positively skewed – mode is lowest, median is in
the middle, and mean is highest
 Negatively skewed – mean is lowest, median is in
the middle, and mode is highest
Objectives 7.1 & 7.2
Measures of Relative Position
 Purpose – indicates where a score is in
relation to all other scores in the
distribution
 Characteristics
 Clear estimates of relative positions
 Possible to compare students’
performances across two or more different
tests provided the scores are based on the
same group
Objectives 7.1 & 7.2
Measures of Relative Position
 Types
 Percentile ranks – the percentage of scores
that fall at or above a given score
 Standard scores – a derived score based
on how far a raw score is from a reference
point in terms of standard deviation units
 z score
 T score
 Stanine
Objectives 9.3 & 9.4
Measures of Relative Position
 z score
 The deviation of a score from the mean in
standard deviation units
 The basic standard score from which all other
standard scores are calculated
 Characteristics
 Mean = 0
 Standard deviation = 1
 Positive if the score is above the mean and negative if it
is below the mean
 Relationship with the area under the normal curve

Objective 9.5
Measures of Relative Position

 z score (continued)
 Possible to calculate relative standings like
the percent better than a score, the
percent falling between two scores, the
percent falling between the mean and a
score, etc.
 Formula

Objective 9.5
Measures of Relative Position

 T score – a transformation of a z score

where T = 10(z) + 50
 Characteristics
 Mean = 50
 Standard deviation = 10
 No negative scores

Objective 9.6
Measures of Relative Position
 Stanine – a transformation of a z score
where the stanine = 2(z) + 5 rounded
to the nearest whole number
 Characteristics
 Nine groups with 1 the lowest and 9 the
highest
 Categorical interpretation
 Frequently used in norming tables

Objective 9.7
Measures of Relationship
 Purpose – to provide an indication of the relationship
between two variables
 Characteristics of correlation coefficients
 Strength or magnitude – 0 to 1
 Direction – positive (+) or negative (-)
 Types of correlation coefficients – dependent on the
scales of measurement of the variables
 Spearman rho – ranked data
 Pearson r – interval or ratio data

Objectives 8.1, 8.2, & 8.3

Measures of Relationship

 Interpretation – correlation does not

mean causation
 Formula for Pearson r

Objective 8.2
Calculating Descriptive Statistics
 Symbols used in statistical analysis
 General rules for calculating by hand
 Make the columns required by the formula
 Label the sum of each column
 Write the formula
 Write the arithmetic equivalent of the
problem
 Solve the arithmetic problem
Objectives 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, & 10.4
Calculating Descriptive Statistics
 Using SPSS Windows
 Means, standard deviations, and standard
scores
 The DESCRIPTIVE procedures
 Interpreting output
 Correlations
 The CORRELATION procedure
 Interpreting output

Objectives 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, & 10.4

Calculating Descriptive Statistics

 See the Statistical Analysis of Data module

on the web site for problems related to
descriptive statistics
Formula for the Mean

X 
 x
n
Formula for Variance

x 2

 x
2

S 
2 N
N 1
x
Formula for Standard Deviation

x 2

 x
2

SD  N
N 1
Formula for Pearson Correlation

 x  y 
 xy  N
r

 x2  
 x 2
 
 y 2   y 2


 N   N 
  
Formula for z Score

(x  X )
Z
s x