Educational research shows that students who attend schools with low f

Question

Educational research shows that students who attend schools with low faculty/student ratios perform better on standardized tests than students who attend schools with high ratios. Therefore, homeschooling is the best option because the student and parent can work one on one.

Which of the following, if true, most weakens this argument?

A Standardized test results for homeschooled students show that scores are highly related to the parent-teacher’s level of education.

B Standardized test results from larger schools that require teachers to have a Master’s degree are comparable to test results for students from smaller

C Studies show that homeschooled students struggle socially.

D Standardized test results for homeschooled students show the same range of scores as scores for students from large schools.

E Private schooling is prohibitively expensive for many families.

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karthikkaushik91 · Answer

Is it D coz C is not mentioned? 
Cheers!
Karthik

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alexmonnin · Answer

The argument is that homeschooling is the best way for students to perform well on standardized tests because it has the lowest teacher to student ratio.

A is correct because it basically says that homeschooling is only good if the parent/teacher is high highly educated. So in some scenarios home schooling could actually be the worst choice
B, C, & E are incorrect because they are completely irrelevant and their is no proof that these will affect students scores.
D is incorrect because range is affected by outliers and is not reliable for comparing scores between schools.

alexmonnin · Answer

No problem. You should give kudos instead of saying thanks. Its one of the rules of posting.

Shivikaa · Answer

Why is D not an answer ? We are comparing the scores of students, then why are we choosing A over D?

SonalSinha803 · Answer

Hello all,

I believe D to be the answer because A does not weaken the argument as much as D does. A just talks about the level of education, so obviously in some cases homeschools could still be a better option for some students.

However, D states that the score ranges are same in both the cases. Thus, according to the argument that homeschooling would be a "better alternative"....is weakened by the claim that scores remain same ("not better").

Plzz correct me if anyone finds any mistake.

Thanks !!

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MrCleantek · Answer

I eliminated D because it talks about the 'Range'. What if the ranges in this case are better? This will not weaken the argument. Thats what I think. Please correct me if I am wrong

SonalSinha803 · Answer

Yes D talks about the fact that range of scores is same and not better, thus, the argument claiming that scores get better is weakened.

Thus, option D takes a firm stand against the argument.

I don't understand why should it not weaken the argument.

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US09 · Answer

While analysing an argument it is very important to understand what premise led to the conclusion. Here, the conclusion is: homeschooling is the best. Why? Because of smallest ratio of parent (teacher) and student. Note the causality: smaller ratio=better results. Considering this, let us look at the options:

A Standardized test results for homeschooled students show that scores are highly related to the parent-teacher’s level of education.  This gives us another reason for good scores. That is, higher the education level=better the results. Weakens our causal relationship by some degree. Hold.

B Standardized test results from larger schools that require teachers to have a Master’s degree are comparable to test results for students from smaller.  Okay, but we are not concerned about large schools with specific set of requirements for teachers. We are looking at schools and ratios in general and if there are/is any other reason for the test results. Also, we have no idea about the requirements of smaller school and if the levels of education of teachers has any influence on scores of tests. Incorrect.
 
C Studies show that homeschooled students struggle socially.  Irrelevant. Incorrect.

D Standardized test results for homeschooled students show the same range of scores as scores for students from large schools. Do large schools necessarily mean bigger or smaller teacher-student ratios? No information on this part. We cannot assume this as well. Incorrect.

E Private schooling is prohibitively expensive for many families.  Irrelevant. Incorrect.

Hence, A.

sidvarma · Answer

I equated large school with bigger teacher-student ratios. CR is BRUTAL AF.

Snehaaa · Answer

In D it doesn’t matter whether ratio is low or high. If range is comparable then homeschooling clearly is not the best option.

KeyurJoshi · Answer

I personally thought that A is a strong weakener than D, here's my reasoning (open for discussion

) Conclusion: Homeschooling is the best option because the student and parent can work one on one. A Standardized test results for homeschooled students show that scores are highly related to the parent-teacher’s level of education. => CORRECT. If the level of education of parent-teacher is great then their kids will perform better BUT if its very low, then the kids will not perform better. Clearly, if that's true, homeschooling is NOT THE BEST option. B Standardized test results from larger schools that require teachers to have a Master’s degree are comparable to test results for students from smaller => Totally irrelevant. C Studies show that homeschooled students struggle socially. => We dont care if they struggle socially or not, thats out of scope. D Standardized test results for homeschooled students show the same range of scores as scores for students from large schools. => Here, we don't know anything about the Faculty:Student ratio in large school but, A kid from a large school, in which scores of students range from 460-600, gets a 460 on the test and A kid who is homeschooled (same range of 460-600) gets a 600, If the above scenario is one of the cases, then homeschooling may be THE BEST option of all. E Private schooling is prohibitively expensive for many families. => Cost of schooling is out of scope.

ravigupta2912 · Answer

Between A and D, I think the "range of scores" in D was something that was ambiguous and could potentially strengthen the argument. For all we know if 80% of homeschooled kids score a 700 and 20% score 400, the range would be 400 to 700.

But if students in schools score between 400 to 700 (50% scoring 400 and 50% scoring 700) - we can indeed conclude that homeschooling is better.

I eliminated D basis that ground.

A on the other hand has no ambiguity. It provides another cause for the speculated correlation between low faculty / student ratio and higher scores. It just says that ratio is irrelevant and education of teacher is what matters. We have to assume this is true (since the question stem says so). If this is true that education is what that matters - can we really conclude correlation presented in the argument as causation? No, we cannot.

Hence, A.

ahddhah · Answer

D is a trap choice since large school doesn’t mean that large school would have high faculty/ teacher ratio

Educational research shows that students who attend schools with low f

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