Two areas of the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) were tested: math and reading. To determine if there is an association between math and reading scores, which test is used?

Two areas of the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) were tested: math and reading. To determine if there is an association between math and reading scores, which test is used?

• A. Chi-square test of independence
• B. ANOVA
• C. Pearson correlation test
• D. Linear Regression t-test (degrees of freedom unknown)

Answer: (D)

For two continuous scores like math and reading, the way to see if they move together is to look at their linear relationship. The Pearson correlation is designed for this: it gives a correlation coefficient that shows both how strong the association is and whether it’s positive or negative, and it provides a significance test to tell if that relationship is unlikely to occur by chance. Chi-square is used for categorical data, not for measuring the association between two numeric scores. ANOVA compares means across groups, which isn’t about how two continuous variables relate. While regression can model one variable as a predictor of the other and test whether the slope is different from zero, the direct question of whether there is an association between the two continuous scores is most appropriately answered with the correlation analysis.

For two continuous scores like math and reading, the way to see if they move together is to look at their linear relationship. The Pearson correlation is designed for this: it gives a correlation coefficient that shows both how strong the association is and whether it’s positive or negative, and it provides a significance test to tell if that relationship is unlikely to occur by chance.

Chi-square is used for categorical data, not for measuring the association between two numeric scores. ANOVA compares means across groups, which isn’t about how two continuous variables relate. While regression can model one variable as a predictor of the other and test whether the slope is different from zero, the direct question of whether there is an association between the two continuous scores is most appropriately answered with the correlation analysis.