Cobb County School District is conducting a survey regarding the effectiveness of its teachers. A random sample of 500 students from the district are chosen to complete the survey. What is the population?
A. The population is all teachers employed by Cobb County School District.
B. The population is the 500 randomly selected students.
C. The population is all students enrolled in the Cobb County School District.
D. The population is all teachers employed by the Cobb County School District and all students enrolled in the district.
The correct answer and explanation is:
The correct answer is C. The population is all students enrolled in the Cobb County School District.
In survey research, the population refers to the entire group that the survey is meant to represent. In this case, the Cobb County School District is interested in the effectiveness of its teachers, and the survey is aimed at understanding the views of students within the district.
The sample is a subset of the population, in this case, the 500 randomly selected students. These students will provide responses that are used to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the teachers for all students within the district. The purpose of the survey is not limited to just the 500 students, but rather to all students enrolled in the school district, as the results from the sample are meant to represent the entire student body.
Answer options A and D do not correctly identify the population. While teachers are part of the school district, the focus of the survey is on students’ views, not teachers’ effectiveness based on their own evaluation. Hence, the population is not just teachers (A), nor is it a combination of both teachers and students (D).
The population encompasses all students enrolled in the district, as the survey aims to understand the general perception of student effectiveness across the entire district. By using a random sample of students from this population, the survey seeks to generalize findings to the whole group of students in Cobb County School District.