The data from a survey of high school math and science teachers show that in the district of Sanlee many of these teachers reported assigning daily homework, whereas in the district of Marlee, most science and math teachers reported assigning homework no more than two or three days per week. Despite receiving less frequent homework assignments, Marlee students earn better grades overall and are less likely to be required to repeat a year of school than are students in Sanlee. These results call into question the usefulness of frequent homework assignments. Most likely the Marlee students have more time to concentrate on individual assignments than do the Sanlee students who have homework every day. Therefore teachers in our high schools should assign homework no more than twice a week.
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
The arguer claims that the teachers of the high schools in Sanlee should assign homework less than twice a week, since the students in Marlee benefits from the less homework per week. However, the arguments is unwarrented with several flaws and lack specific evidence to evaluate.
Firstly, one evidence we need is that there is no significant difference in education resources and qualities between the students in Marlee and Sanlee. It is likely that Marlee students have better education due to more financial support and better urban development, while Sanlee students mainly grow up in poverty which less education resources because of the undeveloped economy circumstance. Perhaps quantities number of high school students in Marlee have already learned the major part of courses in senior schools, therefore, they do not receive more homework assignments with solid learning bedrock about the knowledge. In this case, they earn better scores at ease. On the contrary, since the students in Sanlee have less advantages in education, most of them would suffer from tough courses in high schools, so that it is necessary to assign more frequent homework to assure their learning outcomes.
Secondly, the arguer fails to provide the evidence that the amount of homework assignments in math and science has a directe effect on the gardes and students' performances. Indeed Marlee students performs better not only in grades but also the rate of graduate. Nevertheless, we cannot attribute the frequent homework assignments to the Sanlee students' weaker performances, since the assignments in math and science disparate dramatically with other subjects. There is a great possibility that Sanlee students performs better in arts and literatures than Marlee students, while the teachers in Marlee report homework assignments more often than those in Sanlee. In addition, the survey in Marlee might be a particular example, yet the data in recent years of other districts have shown that there is no crucial connection between homework assignments and students' grades.
Lastly, another evidence which is needed is the teachers in two districts have similar teaching abilities. If the teachers in Sanlee are younger than the teachers in Marlee in the average level, then they might lack enough teaching experience, which triggers to weaker performances in communicating with students, preparing courses and so on. Moreover, given that most science and math teachers in Marlee have better education background, they grasp the knowledge much precisely than those in Sanlee. Even if the high school teachers in Sanlee assign less homework, we cannot take it for granted that their could handle well with the students' learning stituation, especially for those with weaker learning abilities.
To sum up, without ruling out these specific evidence, the arguer cannot convince us to consider about this suggestion.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 10 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 17 15
No. of Words: 453 350
No. of Characters: 2405 1500
No. of Different Words: 207 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.613 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.309 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.62 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 206 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 143 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 110 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 51 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 26.647 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.97 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.882 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.378 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.599 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.16 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 728, Rule ID: FEWER_LESS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'fewer'? The noun advantages is countable.
Suggestion: fewer
...rary, since the students in Sanlee have less advantages in education, most of them w...
^^^^
Line 5, column 174, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Indeed,
...n the gardes and students performances. Indeed Marlee students performs better not onl...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, however, if, lastly, moreover, nevertheless, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, well, while, in addition, of course, on the contrary, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 11.0 19.6327345309 56% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 12.9520958084 69% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 29.0 28.8173652695 101% => OK
Preposition: 68.0 55.5748502994 122% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2464.0 2260.96107784 109% => OK
No of words: 453.0 441.139720559 103% => OK
Chars per words: 5.43929359823 5.12650576532 106% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.61343653406 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.72064823453 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 213.0 204.123752495 104% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.470198675497 0.468620217663 100% => OK
syllable_count: 744.3 705.55239521 105% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 8.0 2.70958083832 295% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 8.0 4.22255489022 189% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 19.7664670659 86% => OK
Sentence length: 26.0 22.8473053892 114% => OK
Sentence length SD: 58.180187831 57.8364921388 101% => OK
Chars per sentence: 144.941176471 119.503703932 121% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.6470588235 23.324526521 114% => OK
Discourse Markers: 10.2352941176 5.70786347227 179% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.67664670659 21% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.350667071897 0.218282227539 161% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.113858694649 0.0743258471296 153% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0794733122432 0.0701772020484 113% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.190284005163 0.128457276422 148% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.113270080515 0.0628817314937 180% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.5 14.3799401198 122% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 45.09 48.3550499002 93% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 12.197005988 110% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.57 12.5979740519 116% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.45 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 101.0 98.500998004 103% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.1389221557 111% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.