Mr.Jacobs wants to find out whether a new program for teaching physical education promotes students' physical development.He gives his students a number of tests before they begin the program pretests)and the same tests again after they have been in the program for eight months posttests).He finds that the students' posttest scores are higher than their pretest scores and so concludes that the program is effective.What is definitely wrong with Mr.Jacobs' conclusion?
A)Eight months is too short a time for such a program to have a long-term effect.
B)There are other possible explanations for his results.
C)Tests are not a good measure of physical development.
D)The posttests should always be different from the pretests.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Mr. Jacobs' conclusion is based solely on a correlation between pretest and posttest scores, which does not necessarily prove causation. There could be other factors besides the program that led to an improvement in the students' scores. Without controlling for these other factors, Mr. Jacobs cannot definitively conclude that the program was the sole cause of the improvement.

MrJacobs Wants to Find Out Whether a New Program for Teaching