Question

The city council of a large city needs to know whether its residents will support the building of three new schools. The council decides to conduct a survey of a sample of the city’s residents. Which procedure would be most appropriate for obtaining a sample of the city’s residents? Explain your answer.
A.Survey a random sample of teachers who live in the city.

B.Survey 100 individuals who are randomly selected from a list of all people living in the state in which the city in question is located.

C.Survey a random sample of persons within each neighborhood of the city.

D.Survey every tenth person who enters City Hall on a randomly selected day.

Answer 1

Answer: C) Survey a random sample of persons within each neighborhood of the city.

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Explanation:

I'll go through each answer choice to say why it is either the answer or not the answer.

A. This is not the answer because teachers are over-represented while non-teachers are under-represented. The teachers will most likely respond favorably to the survey, skewing the results. The other townspeople's opinions would be left out.

B. This is not the answer because people living far away from the city in question should not have sway over what happens in the particular city. It makes no sense to have someone in San Francisco determine what happens in LA schools. It's better to ask people who live in the city. Perhaps you could extend the net to nearby surrounding cities assuming those parents commute into the city to drop off their kids at those schools.

C. This is the answer. It's best to ask city residents because it is a local city issue. I would put every resident's name or address into a computer database, then have a random number generator select those individuals.

D. This is not the answer. People who do not visit city hall will not be represented at all, which skews the results of what the people of the city want overall.