Resource Library

How are earnings determined? Why do some people earn more than others? Does a better job necessarily mean a better salary? In this module, students will attempt to answer these questions and many others by examining factors such as education and occupation in terms of the role they play in determining earnings. Students will also look at the earnings of whites and compare them to the earnings of blacks, Latinos, and Asians. Another consideration will center on the effect of gender. Finally, students will turn their attention to the age of workers in terms what role it plays in determing earnings. Aside from earnings, students will also take a brief look at poverty with respect to the effect race-ethnicity and family structure has on creating and sustaining it.

In this module you will have the opportunity to explore the frequency of different types of residential moves carried out by Americans. You will examine some of the basic determinants of residential mobility by looking at variations in different types of mobility by age, marital status, education, and housing tenure. Finally, you will have an opportunity to test hypotheses, drawn from a popular theoretical perspective, about racial differences in residential mobility.

As discussed, the murder rates for Blacks in the United States are substantially higher than those for Whites, with Latino murder rates falling in the middle. These differences have existed throughout the 20th and into the 21st century and, with few exceptions, are found in different sections of the United States. Although biological and genetic explanations for racial differences in crime rates, including murder, have been discredited and are no longer accepted by most criminologists, both cultural and structural theories are widespread in the literature on crime and violence. It is also important to remember that Latino is an ethnic rather than a racial classification. The point of this exercise is to examine differences in selected structural positions of Blacks, Whites and Latinos in the United States that may help explain long-standing differences in their murder rates.

This activity uses Microsoft Excel for a simulation of probability concepts. The Excel file and handouts are provided. Students will explore the concept of independent events, sample spaces, equally likely probabilities, and percentages within the context of this simulation.

This activity discusses probability topics, such as: sample space, independent events, Law of Large Numbers, deviation percentage. A Excel program is required for this activity, which can be reached via the website.

This survey assesses statistical literacy. The survey focuses on the general use of informal statistics in everyday situations: reading and interpreting tables and graphs involving rates and percentages.

This paper presents rules for determining whether an index variable in such a table is part or whole depending on whether the associated margin value is an average, a sum or a 100% sum. Tables with missing margin values -- date-indexed tables, half tables and control tables -- are analyzed. Recommendations are made to improve reader understanding of any table involving rates or percentages.

This article describes a dataset containing information on economic class of passengers and mortality rates from the sinking of the Titanic. The dataset can be used to foster statistical thinking by giving students the data and asking them to determine the source.

This article describes a dataset containing information for 25 brands of domestic cigarettes. The dataset can be used to illustrate multiple regression, outliers, and collinearity.

This article describes a dataset containing information on 308 diamond stones, which is useful when studying concepts in multiple linear regression analysis. Key Words: Categorical variables; Data transformation; Standardized residuals.