The purpose of this project is to analyze the relationship between test scores, school characteristics, and student demographic backgrounds for the California school districts. The data are based on all the 420 K-6 and K-8 districts in California with data available for 1998 and 1999. All the data were obtained from the California Department of Education (www.cde.ca.gov). The variables of this project are defined as follows.

TESTSCR = The average of the reading and math scores on the Stanford 9 standardized test administered to 5th grade students.
STR = The student- teacher ratio
AVINC = The district average income in thousands of dollars
ELPCT = The percentage of students that are English Learners, that is for whom English is a second language

The project is in five sections based on (i) introduction, (ii) model, (iii) descriptive statistics (iv) empirical results and (v) conclusion.

I. Introduction: Explain briefly the nature of your project. Explain the motivation and
usefulness of this topic.

II. Model: Present your model based on Table 1 (below) that contains the dependent and independent variables used. Add to the table the expected signs of the relationship between TESTSCR and the independent variables; provide briefly a rationale for the signs.

Table 1. Variables name, definition and expected signs

TESTSCR The average of the reading and
Math scores on the Stanford 9
standardized test administered to
5th grade students
Independent variables
STR The student- teacher ratio

AVINC The district average income in
thousands of dollars

ELPCT The percentage of students that are
English Learners, that is for whom
English is a second language