Minitab assignment4

Chapter 4 Minitab Express We could consider many sets of variables to summarize a county’s economic status. I will examine the variables to identify a set that might be used to measure a county’s public schools and public education. There are many variables that I can consider. Using the Minitab command Statistics, Correlation, Correlation, I will select the variables to investigate for internal consistency. I want to find three variables but I’ve included 6 variables in case there are any variables that are negatively correlated. For this exercise, the variables you select must be positive correlated with each other. If there are variables that are negatively correlated, we need to remove those from consideration.

Here is the correlation matrix: Notice that per pupil expenditures is negatively correlated with all of the other variables so this variable is eliminated.

Of the remaining variables, population is highly correlated with all variables so I will keep this variable. All remaining variables show high correlations so I can select whatever set makes the most sense. NOTE: Since all variables are highly correlated with population, it might make sense to standardize these variables – we will study this in PUP3046. But for now, consider that we could calculate licensed day care facilities per 100,000 population or per 1,000,000 population. Without standardizing, counties with large populations will obviously have more facilities but do they have enough to meet the needs of the population? Standardization removes the effect of the differences in populations. For question 2, you will select a different set of three variables, this time seeking to measure a county's poverty. Follow the steps above.