Chris, Marc, Matt

CHEATING:<= /o:p>

THE BLACK PLAUGE OF TAES CREE= K

Chris Wolfe=

Marc Boiss…<= /span>

Matt Bishop
Disclaimer:

“Thi= s study was done in an AP Statistics course with relatively small sample sizes. The validity of such studies must = always be questioned. Please keep th= is is mind if you use or report the results of this study.”

Abstract:

This exper= iment was designed to expose the growing trend of cheating at Tates Creek Senior High School.= The purpose of this experiment is = to prove that the cheating rate at Tates Creek High School is significantly above the national average found in a 1993 Rutgers survey (yaledailynews.com). A= lso, the point is to prove that from year to year, the pressure to succeed cause= s a student to cheat more and more. Cheating can be a tempting form to get ahead in the ultra competitive nature of our school system. Students want = to get in to the best colleges possible. To do this, they have to have the best possible grades, and cheating= can help you get those results. <= /p>

This surve= y was conducted out of a random sample of Tates Creek high school students. An SRS of the entire school would = best portray the students’ habits of cheating at Tates Creek high school.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'>

In this experiment, a t-test of significance was performed in order to determine if= cheating at Tates = Creek High School was significantly above the national average.

Methodology:

The survey was conducted to find the cheating habits of = Tates Creek High School student= s in order to prove that the proportion of students who cheat at Tates Creek was significantly above the national average of 70% found in a 1993 survey.

For this experiment, a survey of a SRS of Tates Creek High needed to be conducted. To begin, each student at Tates Cr= eek in grades 9-12 was assigned a lottery number to be used in the random selection process. It was decided that a sample size of 120 for those students chosen to be surveyed was best because 120 being about 8% of the student population could accurately portray the student population’s cheating habits while still being a manageable survey size. Next a random nu= mber generator was used to create 120 independently random numbers without repea= ts between 1 and 1552. Each of t= he 120 numbers and their corresponding student was then added to the “to-be surveyed” list. When the survey was given, the student was asked to circle what grade they are in.

Next the f= ollowing survey questions were created, each designed to be clear and concise while leaving as little room for confusion as possible:

“In= the last month have you cheated on a Test? (copied, used notes or cheat sheet, = use text messages or other technology for answers)”=

“Do= you think it is wrong to cheat on a test?”

“In= the last month have you cheated on Homework? (copied homework, plagiarized, re-= used old homework, split up homework)”

“Do= you think it is wrong to cheat on homework?”

To reduce any bias, the student was allowed to fill o= ut the survey with nobody looking over his/her shoulder. The students may not have been as = honest if somebody was watching them fill out a survey about cheating. Once the entire population h= ad completed the survey, a count was taken tallying up the results.

Data Analysis

The data was sorted by grade for ease of use. A “1” is a yes respons= e, while a “0” is a no response.&= nbsp; The data is as follows…

	In the last mont= h have you cheated on a test?	Do you think it = is wrong to cheat on tests?	In the last mont= h, have you cheated on homework?	Do you think it = is wrong to cheat on homework?	Cheated on test = or on homework
9th Grade	5 of 21	17 of 21	13 of 21	10 of 21	13 of 21
10th Grade<= /o:p>	13 of 21	9 of 21	17 of 21	5 of 21	18 of 21
11th Grade<= /o:p>	7 of 21	7 of 14	19 of 21	9 of 21	19 of 21
12th Grade<= /o:p>	11 of 20	18 of 20	14 of 20	11 of 20	16 of 20

Total=	36	51	63	35	66
Out of	83	83	83	83	83
Percentage<= /o:p>	43%	61%	76%	42%	80%

One Sample Proportion Z-Test

Assume:

üüo = 1552 > 10∙83 =3D 830

ü0>10

o = 83(.7)=3D58.1>10

ün(1- p₀)>10

o = 83(.3)= =3D24.9>10

Hypothesis:

&= nbsp; H₀: p =3D 0.70

H_A: p > 0.7= 0

Test

p-not =3D 0.70 &= nbsp; n =3D 83

p-hat =3D 66/83 =3D 0.795 ά =3D 0.05

z&= nbsp; =3D p-hat – p= -not = =3D &= nbsp; 0.795 – 0.70 = =3D &= nbsp; 1.889

&nb= sp; (p-not(1- p-not)/n)^½ &nb= sp; = (0.7(0.3)/83)^½

P(z > 1.889) =3D 0.0295

Because = the p-value or 0.0295 is less than ά =3D 0.05, it is safe to reject H_=
0in favor of H_A. In other words, based on the p-val= ue which is lower than the set alpha level, it is safe to reject that the proportion of students at Tates Creek who cheat is not 70% but, in fact, is greater.

Conclusion:

&nb= sp; Only 83 of the 123 desired students filled out the survey due to a number of reasons: they were absent, they were busy, etc. A larger sample size will always h= elp an experiment achieve better and more accurate results. Although the data could have been slightly different, it would probably be similar because the proportion of = the other 40 students would most likely be close to the proportions we found. Overall, the data proves, as shown= by the Z-test, that Tates Creek high school students cheat more than the natio= nal average given by the 1993 Rutgers University study.

Bibliography:=

PATI, RITU. "= ;Cheating has few disciples at Yale, students say." Yale Daily News&= nbsp;20 09 1995. 05/17/06 &= lt;http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=3D6144>.