Question

The comparisons of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores based on the highest level of education attained by the test taker's parents are provided. A research hypothesis was that students whose parents had attained a higher level of education would on average score higher on the SAT. The overall mean SAT math score was 514. SAT math scores for independent samples of students follow. Two samples are contained in the Excel Online file below. The first sample shows the SAT math test scores for students whose parents are college graduates with a bachelor's degree. The second sample shows the SAT math test scores for students whose parents are high school graduates but do not have a college degree. Use the Excel Online spreadsheet below to answer the following questions.

Compute the t-value, degrees of freedom, and p-value for the hypothesis test.

College 496 672 608 608 432 528 672 512 480 576 480 480 592 560 608 480

High School 396 468 432 528 432 480 552 564 396 564 444 540

t-value: (to 4 decimals)

Degrees of freedom:

p-value: (to 4 decimals)

Answer 1

The EXCEL output for two sample t-test is given below.

The t-statistic (t-value) is

Degrees of freedom is

p-value is

Since the p-value is less than , we reject the null hypothesis. The conclusion is:

We are 95% confident that the that students whose parents had attained a higher level of education would on average score higher on the SAT.