Question

a newspaper collected information on schools in its circulation area in order to compare their quality. two measures the newspaper collected for each school, mean class size and mean score on a statewide reading exam, are shown in the scatterplot. one school in the report, springside elementary, is labeled in the graph. which is a true statement regarding springside? springside does not affect the correlation. springside weakens the correlation shown in the scatterplot. springside strengthens the correlation shown in the scatterplot. removing springside would increase the value of the correlation coefficient.

Explanation:

Step1: Analyze the effect of an out - lier on correlation

In a scatter - plot, a point that does not follow the general trend of the other points is an outlier. Springside is an outlier in this scatter - plot.
The correlation coefficient \(r\) measures the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two variables. The closer \(|r|\) is to \(1\), the stronger the linear relationship.
When there is an outlier that does not follow the general trend (in this case, if we assume a negative trend for the non - Springside points: as class size increases, test scores decrease), Springside weakens the overall linear relationship.
If we remove Springside (the outlier), the remaining points will have a stronger linear relationship (either positive or negative depending on the original trend of non - Springside points, but in terms of the magnitude of \(r\)), and the value of the correlation coefficient \(|r|\) will increase.

Answer:

Removing Springside would increase the value of the correlation coefficient.