SPSS Example Business Problem
Just posted a PDF of an example business problem for exploring SPSS as an analytical tool.
(Click on Home and click on the dark blue “SPSS EBP” button)
The data originates from the State of Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) data administration website. Specifically, Excel spreadsheets containing “Graduation and Dropout Statistics for Washington’s Counties, Districts, and Schools 2009-2010 school year”
- Question 1 tries to determine if there is a correlation between # of years that a cohort of students study together and the dropout rate for those students.
- Question 2 probes whether, in schools offering grades 9-12 only, dropout rate of 9th grade is a predictor of 12 grade dropout rate or 4 year cumulative dropout rate.
- Question 3 looks for correlation between dropout rates in Grade 12 and Grade 12 Class size.
The document describes the steps I went through to answer these questions and the results that I obtained.
Since this is an exercise in SPSS methods and not an actual educational policy analysis project, many assumptions were made or implied regarding the data and the validity of the questions themselves.
No conclusions should be drawn from the results shown this paper.