By: AP Students Ms. Daniel- AP Statistics, Period 5 Do students take the late work policy in certain classes more serious than in others? By: AP Students Ms. Daniel- AP Statistics, Period 5

Executive Summary In our survey, we questioned 30 randomly selected students from Alonzo and Tracy Mourning High regarding the late work policy and the students motivation to complete work more in certain classes that enforce the late work policy. Our results show that, majority of the students surveyed have at least 2 teachers that consistently enforce a late work policy, of those teachers majority of the students are taking AP classes, have turned in work late about 2-5 times, believe the policy is fair, value the weight of an assignment more than the teachers policy and/or their feelings towards the teacher, the main reason they turn in late work is mainly because there is no time, and their grade is often affected in about 4 of their classes. It is clear that students do take the late work policy in certain classes more than in others, that being if it is an AP class, and mainly because of the weight of the assignment.

Research Questions How many of your teachers are strict consistently with late work, in regards to late work select the response that best describes you, how would you describe the late work policy, how do you prioritize which assignment to do first and last, order of importance, on a scale from 1 to 3 ( 1 being the most important, 3 being the least), what kind of class is prioritized first, why do you turn in work late, does late work affect your grade, In how many of your classes does it affect your grade, and how often does completing late work interfere with non-related school activities.

Explanation Our group selected this specific question regarding late work, because we were both intrigued in finding out the students views on this policy, how many of their teachers enforce it, the reason they turn in late work, and how it affects their grade. We have many teachers who enforce this policy and do at times get affected by turning in work late.

Demographic Overview As shown above in the graph, we surveyed a total of 3 sophomores (1 male, 2 females), a total of 18 juniors (6 males, 12 females), and a total of 9 seniors (5 males, 4 females).

How many of your teachers consistently enforce a late work policy? 1 2 3 4 5 6 Based on the graph, it is apparent that there were about 27% more students who said that 2 of their teachers enforce the policy than 4 teachers. Thus, making the graph unimodal. These results may have been expected because of the amount of juniors and seniors we surveyed, making it possible that they are in stricter classes than sophomores.

With the teachers in regards to late work, select the response that best describes you. I have never turned in late work I have only turned in late work once I have turned in late work between 2-5 times I have turned in late work almost every other work I have turned in late work for every assignment Based on the graph, both answer choices a and b had 4 each, while answer choice c was chosen about 50% more than both answer choice d and e. These results were expected because as high school students, juggling multiple rigorous classes and extracurriculars, they are all bound to turn in late work at least 2-5 times.

How would you describe the late work policy? Completely unfair Somewhat unfair Neutral Fair Very fair In the graph, it is apparent that majority of the students chose answer choice c, neutral, about 1/3 more than answer choice b. Based on the results, no one said that the late work policy was completely unfair, most students said that overall it was neutral or fair. These results were expected because, students understand the policy and why it is enforced.

How do you prioritize which assignment to do first and last, order of importance, on a scale from 1 to 3 (1-most important, 3-least) The teacher’s late work policy is strict consistently The grade value of the assignments is stricter Depending on my feelings toward the teacher Based on this graph, majority of the students chose choice C as being the least important (3), while both (2) and (1) were equal in importance between answer choices A and B. This shows that more students in A picked 2 to describe its importance and in B, picked 1, being the most important. Based on these answer choices, it was expected that the feelings one has towards a teacher would be the least important, and both late work policy and the grade value being equal.

Based on your answer from question 4, what kind of class is prioritized first? AP (Advanced Placement) Honors Regular Elective This distribution shows that 2 voters chose answers B and D for each, while 87% of the votes went to answer choice A. It’s reasonable to assume that students prioritize AP classes over others due to them being challenging and taking up time.

Why do you turn in work late? I want to sleep I’m too lazy I don’t have enough time I forget Does not apply; I don’t turn in work late From the data, most students don’t have enough time causing them to turn in work late. Meanwhile half of the students are just lazy or forgetful. Resulting in a roughly symmetric graph.

Does late work affect your grade? Not at all Somewhat Definitely Students are attentive to when late work affects their grade, resulting with the majority vote of 63% on choice B. 10% more of the student said that late work doesn’t affect their grade than it definitely affecting their grade.

According to question 7, in how many of your classes does late work affect your grade? None of my classes 1 of my classes 2 of my classes 3 of my classes 4 of my classes 5 of my classes All of them Out of the people surveyed, 7 students chose B and D for each, but students chose answer C the most with 10 votes. Twice as many students chose F than G, making G the answer choice with the least amount of votes, 1.  

How often does completing late work interfere with non-related school activities, such as hanging out with friends, spending time with family, playing sports, etc? It doesn’t interfere Once in a while Very often All the time It’s clear that the majority of students said that non-related school activities interfered with completing late work once in a while, unlike the other eight who said it doesn’t interfere. Both, answer choices C and D had the least amount of votes, 1 vote each. These results show that students manage their time well and prioritize their school work.

Bias/Errors To seem like a fine student or look “cool”, response bias could have occurred with question 2: amount of times late work has been turned in, question 5: prioritizing a class first, and question 6: reason for turning in work late. The wording of questions may be a source of error as well as undercoverage because no freshmen were surveyed. Errors may have happened when students didn’t correlate their answer choices from question 7 with 8 and from question 4 with 5.

Changes/Improvements An equal amount of sophomores, juniors, and seniors should have been surveyed. Freshmen should have also been surveyed for more variability. A larger sample size should be an improvement for the result of less variability and accurate results. Also, improvements with the wording of the questions should be made for less confusion.

Policies Don’t waste time! Manage time during the school week to get all work done and always stay productive during any free time. Also, take advantage of free time during the weekends. Don’t procrastinate and start any assignments before or the day of it’s assigned. Get enough rest so laziness won’t affect your school productivity.

Further Suggestions As said before, suggestion's for further investigations would be to survey larger sample size. Include freshmen, with equal amount of students per grade (freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors). Adding more questions and better the wording of questions, to avoid having bias although there is no way of avoiding response bias.