Question

Cindy is a first-year math teacher who has just collected a chapter test from her 4th period students. As Cindy reviews the test scores, she notices that while she has several students who have earned an A, most of the test scores are in the C to B range. She also notices that two of the scores are much lower than the rest, each earning an F. This makes sense to her, as those two students were absent for much of the chapter. However, she must now report to her principal on the performance of her class on this test. Which measure of central tendency should Cindy use in her report to the principle if she wants to portray her students in the most favorable manner?

Answer 1

The best measure of central tendency that Cindy should use in her report is the median. It is the middle score of a certain set of data which is arranged in an increasing manner. The median is not affected by outliers whereas the mean is. It is not affected by the tendency to have several highest count of repeating numbers unlike the mode.

Answer 2

I only know of two measures of central tendency. Those are the median and the mean.

The mean is the average value of all numbers in the data set. It is adding up all the number and dividing it by the count of the data set.

The median is found as the middle most value of the data set that is arranged in ascending value.

In this scenario, it is better to use the MEDIAN in Cindy's report to the principal to portray her students in the most favorable manner. The median may either be a C or B. The F grade will not be considered.