Aklan Catholic College

Archbishop Gabriel M. Reyes St., 5600 Kalibo, Aklan, Philippines

Teacher Education & Liberal Arts Department

Discussant: Karl Louis E. Constantino and Sheva A. Gentil TECP - I

EDUC 116: Assessment of Student Learning
Professor: Evelina G. Gayo

MEASURES OF VARIABILITY
Variability
 Variability is the extent to which data points in a statistical distribution or data set diverge
from the average, or mean, value as well as the extent to which these data points differ
from each other.
 The goal for variability is to obtain a measure of how spread out the scores are in a
distribution.
 Variability serves both as a descriptive measure and as an important component of most
inferential statistics.
 As a descriptive statistic, variability measures the degree to which the scores are spread
out or clustered together in a distribution.
 In the context of inferential statistics, variability provides a measure of how accurately
any individual score or sample represents the entire population.

Measuring Variability
Variability can be measured with
• the range
• the interquartile range
— the semi – interquartile range
• the standard deviation.

Interquartile Range
– The interquartile range describes the middle 50% of values when ordered from
lowest to highest.
– To find the interquartile range (IQR), first find the median (middle value) of the
lower and upper half of the data.
– These values are quartile 1 (Q1) and quartile 3 (Q3).
– The IQR is the difference between Q3 and Q1.

Semi – Interquartile Range

– The semi – interquartile range is the distance computed as one half the difference
between the 75th percentile (Q3) and the 25th percentile (Q1).
– The formula for semi-interquartile range is therefore: (Q3 – Q1)/2

Standard Deviation
– Standard deviation is the measure of spread most commonly used in statistical
practice when the mean is used to calculate central tendency. Thus, it measures
 spread around the mean. Because of its close links with the mean, standard deviation
can be greatly affected if the mean gives a poor measure of central tendency.
– When using standard deviation keep in mind the following properties.
 Standard deviation is only used to measure spread or dispersion around the mean
of a data set.
 Standard deviation is never negative.
 Standard deviation is sensitive to outliers. A single outlier can raise the standard
deviation and in turn, distort the picture of spread.
 For data with approximately the same mean, the greater the spread, the greater the
standard deviation.
 If all values of a data set are the same, the standard deviation is zero (because
each value is equal to the mean).

Formulas:
I. Interquartile Range
1. Grouped Data
To solve for the interquartile range by grouped data, the following formula
is used to determine Q3 and Q1.

n   3n 
  F   F 
Q1  LQ1   4 i Q3  LQ3   4 i
 fQ1   fQ3 
   
II. Standard Deviation
1. Ungrouped Data
a. The formula for the standard deviation for ungrouped data is:

( x  x ) 2

n 1
Where:
 = the symbol of standard deviation
 = sum of all numbers
x = value of data sets
 x = mean
n = total number data sets

b. The formula for the standard deviation for ungrouped data with
frequency is:

 f ( x  x )2

f
Where:
 = the symbol of standard deviation
 = sum of all numbers
x = value of data sets
x = mean
f = frequency
n = total number data sets
2. Grouped Data
a. The formula for the standard deviation for grouped data is:

( fx) 2
 fx  2

f

 f 1
Where:
 = the symbol of standard deviation
 = sum of all numbers
x = median
f
= frequency
x2 = median times to itself
fx2 = the frequency times the median to the 2nd power

b. The formula for the standard deviation for grouped data is:

 fx2
  (x ) 2
f
 Where:
 = the symbol of standard deviation
 = sum of all numbers
x = median
f = frequency
x2 = value of data sets times to itself
fx2 = the frequency times the value of data sets to the 2nd power
x = mean
ACTIVITY:

1. Find the interquartile and semi – interquartile range of the following scores:

F (Cumulative
𝑁 𝑓 𝑥
Frequency)

42-45 5

38-41 9

34-37 13

30-33 16

26-29 12
 2. Find the standard deviation of the following scores:

F (Cumulative
𝑁 𝑓 𝑥 𝑓𝑥 𝑥2 𝑓𝑥 2
Frequency)

42-45 7

38-41 12

34-37 10

30-33 14

26-29 7