Basic Statistics Affects - Uses Statistics

Statistics Discussion Paper

How does statistics affect a college? Does an instructor use statistics? If so, how and why do they use statistics? What caused the statistic to start being used? Why figure the grades using statistics? Some decisions are made on statistics in the past instead of the future. "No matter what your career, you will make professional decisions that involve data." (Lind, 2005) This paper will explain the use of statistics and why or how the department uses these statistics. .

In the past, the grades where calculated very differently than they are today. In the past, the instructor had the final say about the grade for the semester. Everything was figured by hand with a pencil and paper. The students would not dare argue with a instructor about the grade that they received. If they received a "C", then they received a "C". If they had a problem with it, then they discussed it with the instructor. The instructor had the final say in what the grade was. Statistics was not a big issue in the past. The instructor might look at how many students made an "A", and how many made a "B'. It did not carry any weight. This was in the good ole times.

Well, times have changed. Some changes for the best and other changes for the worst. Everywhere you turn they want to see the statistics on the subject. The college uses statistics currently to help with financial funding from the state and government. The college takes the total number of students that were currently enrolled, subtracts the total number of students left at the end of the semester. This will give you the attrition rate. The attrition rate is one of the main focuses on each program. The attrition rate is obtained by the following steps each semester. The instructor takes the total number of students that were enrolled, and the number of students that finished the course. Each student is worth about (5%) percentage. Each time a student drops; the attrition percentage for the course goes down. The college looks at the reason for student not continuing in the program. They try to see if there is a trend that can be prevented in the future. This helps us grow as a program. They also look at the rate of graduate students. The accreditation body also places a requirement on each program that makes each program graduate at least 75% of the original enrollment into the program. The instructor uses statistics in several different ways. They figure their grades and attrition rates for the course and semester. One of the differences is that the instructors use calculators now. They weight out each