PrepTest 105, Section 2, Question 15
A report of a government survey concluded that(63 more words not shown)
The school official can most(21 more words not shown)
- Atake into account(13 more words not shown)
- Bask residents whether(15 more words not shown)
- Cdistinguish between residents(14 more words not shown)
- Dpredict the effect(16 more words not shown)
- Econsider whether a(14 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Living in Center City doesn't mean you went to school there. A person could drop out elsewhere, move to Center City years later, and be counted against schools that person never attended.
That's the mismatch in this survey. It asks current residents over 19 whether they graduated, then makes a claim about dropout rates from the city's schools. Even asking every adult resident doesn't fix that. It thoroughly surveys one population while trying to describe another.
Imagine a city whose own schools graduate nearly everyone but which attracts many adults who left school in other places. The residents' graduation rate could be low while the local schools' graduation rate is high. So the official's objection makes sense without requiring the residents to have answered dishonestly.
What we’re looking for
For the flaw question, my prediction is that the survey needs to distinguish local students from people educated elsewhere. The conclusion concerns the schools; the data concern where adults live now.
Working the answers
- A
Someone who dropped out before high school would still answer no when asked whether they were a high school graduate. So the survey's count of nongraduates need not exclude that person. The problem we need to address is whether the respondents attended Center City's schools, not simply the grade in which they left school.
- B
Graduating early still makes someone a graduate. Whether school took three years or the usual number doesn't resolve the mismatch between current residents and people educated in the local schools. This question would add a detail without repairing the survey's basis for its conclusion.
- CCorrect
This separates the groups the survey blends together. A resident who attended Center City's schools can tell us something about outcomes from those schools. A resident educated elsewhere cannot be counted the same way merely because that person now lives in Center City.
Without that distinction, the survey could attribute another school system's dropouts to Center City. The local schools' figures and the residents' answers could both be accurate while describing different populations.
- D
We aren't forecasting how publication of the report will affect future students. We're evaluating whether the report's present conclusion follows from its data. The survey could predict future effects perfectly and still use the wrong group to measure the local schools' dropout rate.
- E
A diploma could signify different academic standards in different years without resolving where the respondents went to school. The report concerns who graduated, not how much graduates learned. This question doesn't repair the link between adult residents and the particular schools being judged.
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