Question

You are a researcher working for an educational research firm. Your firm was asked to conduct a satisfaction survey among the parents of students attending the School District public schools. Your boss has asked you to develop a sampling design for this survey.

For this survey, you are asked to select a representative sample of parents. When you answer the questions, keep the following in mind:

• Assume that you have unlimited authority to access all the information you may need and remember that your task is to select the most representative sample of the parent population.
• There are 10,000 households with children at public schools in the school district.
• One parent will be interviewed for each household in the sample. (Remember that multiple children from the same household may attend public schools, and there may be more than one parent in each household. Regardless of these variations, only one parent will be interviewed from each household selected for the sample.)

1. Describe your population. Elaborate on the specifics of your population.

2. Describe your sampling frame. Be specific in your descriptions. Where would you find the information to define it? Remember that you have full authority to access all the information available, (You just need to know whom to ask and what to ask for.)

3. If you use a simple random sampling design, what is the minimum sample size you will need to determine the percentage (proportion) of those parents who are satisfied with the public schools in Harrisburg at the 4% accuracy level, with the 95% confidence level? Explain how you determined your sample size.

4. If you use a multistage cluster sampling design, would your minimum sample size be larger or smaller than the previous simple random sampling design? Why?

5. If you use a proportionate stratified sampling design, would your minimum sample size be larger or smaller than the simple random sampling design. Why?

Answer 1