Project 5

Please submit your assignment on Canvas.

Eastern vs. Western States Spending on K-12 Education in 2014

Using the data below from the US Census Bureau in 2014, compare how much the states East of the Mississippi spend per year on their K-12 students with how much states West of the Mississippi spend on their K-12 students. Make sure to create a numerical display (make a picture!), describe each distribution (in terms of shape, center and spread) and answer the question: who spends more?

Data in .

Data in .

Eastern State

$ per Student

Western State

$ per Student

Alabama

9,028

Alaska

18,416

Connecticut

17,745

Arizona

7,528

Delaware

13,938

Arkansas

9,616

D.C.

18,485

California

9,595

Florida

8,755

Colorado

8,985

Georgia

9,202

Hawaii

12,485

Illinois

13,077

Idaho

6,621

Indiana

9,548

Iowa

10,688

Kentucky

9,312

Kansas

9,972

Maine

12,707

Louisiana

10,749

Maryland

14,003

Minnesota

11,464

Massachusetts

15,087

Missouri

9,875

Michigan

11,110

Montana

11,017

Mississippi

8,263

Nebraska

11,726

New Hampshire

14,335

Nevada

8,414

New Jersey

17,907

New Mexico

9,734

New York

20,610

North Dakota

12,358

North Carolina

8,512

Oklahoma

7,829

Ohio

11,354

Oregon

9,945

Pennsylvania

13,961

South Dakota

8,881

Rhode Island

14,767

Texas

8,593

South Carolina

9,732

Utah

6,500

Tennessee

8,630

Washington

10,202

Vermont

16,988

Wyoming

15,797

Virginia

10,973

West Virginia

11,260

Wisconsin

11,186

Data based on US Census Bureau. Source:

1. Develop a thesis statement: You can complete the statement below or develop one of your own. You can also change your thesis statement later if your observations about the data warrant it.

• Example: The Eastern States spend more on K-12 students than the Western States.

1. Include a description of the data that you are using. What is source of the data? What is the the variable of interest?
2. Include graphs of both Eastern and Western States distributions with clear and accurate descriptions of each. Make observations about shape, center, spread and outliers (if there are any), for both the eastern states and the western states. Here is of these sort of observations. Include any other observations that will be useful in supporting your thesis.
3. Write the analysis: Write one or more paragraphs that use your observations to analyze whether or not your thesis may be true.

Use the rubric to make sure that you include all the required parts of this project. Please ask if you have any questions.

How-To Video: