An educational polling company wants to determine whether parents of high school-age children believe using an electronic tablet in the classroom will improve student learning. To do this, the company conducted a survey by sending 50,000 text messages across the entire United States to randomly selected phones with text-messaging capabilities. For every text that the company sent, it received a response to the survey. Which of the following best explains why this random sample is unlikely to be a good representative sample of parents' opinions on the use of tablets in the classroom?
A. Most parents don't care about this issue, and their attitude is likely to skew the results.
B. Surveys conducted via text messaging are illegal and therefore are not considered reliable.
C. There is no way to verify whether the responders to the survey were parents of high school age-children.
D. The survey was biased because parents who own a cell phone probably also have a tablet and would want their children to learn how to use it.
Answer:C
An educational polling company wants to determine whether parents of high school-age children believe using an electronic tablet in the classroom will improve student learning. To do this, the company conducted a survey by sending 50,000 text messages across the entire United States to randomly selected phones with text-messaging capabilities. For every text that the company sent, it received a response to the survey. Which of the following best explains why this random sample is unlikely to be a good representative sample of parents' opinions on the use of tablets in the classroom?
A. Most parents don't care about this issue, and their attitude is likely to skew the results. B. Surveys conducted via text messaging are illegal and therefore are not considered reliable. C. There is no way to verify whether the responders to the survey were parents of high school age-children. D. The survey was biased because parents who own a cell phone probably also have a tablet and would want their children to learn how to use it.
Explanation: C