The College Board provided comparisons of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores based on the highest level of education attained by the test taker’s parents. A research hypothesis was that students whose parents had attained a higher level of education would on average score higher on the SAT. During 2003, the overall mean SAT verbal score was 507 (The World Almanac, 2004). SAT verbal scores for independent samples of students follow. The first sample shows the SAT verbal test scores for students whose parents are college graduates with a bachelor’s degree. The second sample shows the SAT verbal test scores for students whose parents are high school graduates but do not have a college degree.

a. Formulate the hypotheses that can be used to determine whether the sample data support the hypothesis that students show a higher population mean verbal score on the SAT if their parents attained a higher level of education.

b. What is the point estimate of the difference between the means for the two populations?

c. Compute the p-value for the hypothesis test.

d. At α .05, what is your conclusion?