51. Education. The National Center for Education Statistics monitors many aspects of elementary and secondary education nationwide. Their 1996 numbers are often used as a baseline to assess changes. In 1996, 34% of students had not been absent from school even once during the previous month. In the 2000 survey, responses from 8302 students showed that this figure had slipped to 33%.

Officials would be concerned if student attendance were declining. Do these figures give evidence of a decrease in student attendance?

a) Write appropriate hypotheses.

b) Check the assumptions and conditions.

c) Perform the test and find the P-value.

d) State your conclusion.

e) Do you think this difference is meaningful? Explain.