Adult Literacy Advanced Quiz: Evaluating Evidence

A town newsletter reports that 68 percent of residents support converting an unused municipal building into an arts center. The figure comes from an online questionnaire linked on the town's social-media page. Four hundred twelve people completed the questionnaire. Participation was voluntary, respondents were not asked whether they lived in town, and no information was collected about age, neighborhood, or other characteristics. The newsletter describes the result as "clear evidence that a large majority of all town residents favor the project."

What is the most important gap in the evidence supporting the newsletter's claim?

After a county library extended its weekday hours until 9 p.m., the director announced that the change had improved completion rates in the library's adult education courses. As evidence, she quoted six graduates who said the later hours allowed them to attend after work. Enrollment records also showed that most classes held after 6 p.m. were nearly full. The library did not report completion rates from before the schedule change, results from branches that retained their previous hours, or information about students who enrolled but left the courses.

Which additional evidence would most directly test the director's claim that extended hours improved course completion?

A property-management firm claims that digital notices are more effective than mailed notices for reaching tenants. In three buildings, the firm emailed a maintenance notice to tenants who had provided email addresses and sent certified letters to the remaining tenants. Its software recorded that 78 percent of the emails were opened, while postal records showed delivery receipts for 61 percent of the certified letters. The firm did not determine whether an opened email was read, whether another household member saw a letter, or how many tenants had not provided an email address because they lacked dependable internet access.

What is the strongest reason the evidence does not fully support the firm's claim?

A developer's transportation study predicts that a proposed apartment complex will not increase congestion at a nearby intersection. The developer funded the study, but the report publishes its traffic counts, formulas, and modeling assumptions. A neighborhood group challenges the prediction using residents' descriptions of existing backups. Later, an independent engineer checks the published traffic counts and finds them accurate but does not evaluate the model's assumptions about how many future residents will use public transit or travel outside peak hours.

Which evaluation gives the most appropriate weight to the available evidence?

A city report credits its free shade-tree program with lowering household summer electricity bills. In neighborhoods that received the most trees, average bills fell by 9 percent over two years; elsewhere, they fell by 2 percent. Trees were distributed first to neighborhoods identified as having the least existing shade. During the same period, the electric utility offered substantial insulation rebates in several of those same neighborhoods. The report does not state how many households used the rebates or whether the tree recipients' homes differed in size, occupancy, or air-conditioning equipment.

Which statement best identifies how the evidence should be evaluated?

A regional insurance company tested flexible start times in one claims-processing unit for three months. According to a management report, the number of employees recorded as late fell from 14 in the previous three-month period to 6 during the pilot. The report concludes, "Flexible scheduling cut lateness by more than half." However, two other changes occurred when the pilot began: road construction near the office ended, and the new unit supervisor recorded an employee as late only after a ten-minute delay rather than the five-minute delay used previously.

Which evaluation of the report's conclusion is most accurate?

A human-resources memo argues that low morale is the principal cause of employee absence. It compares eight departments and reports that departments with lower average scores on an annual engagement survey also had more absence days per employee. The memo does not examine whether the employees who reported low engagement were the same employees who were frequently absent. It also does not account for differences in physical demands, shift schedules, exposure to illness, or access to paid sick leave across departments.

What does the evidence most reasonably support?

A company's annual report states, "Our mentorship program causes new employees to remain with the company longer." Of the new employees assigned mentors last year, 88 percent were still employed after twelve months, compared with 70 percent of employees without mentors. Supervisors selected as mentees those employees they believed showed strong potential, and participation was optional. No adjustments were made for job type, prior experience, starting salary, or supervisor ratings.

Which revision of the annual report's statement is most justified by the evidence?

A manufacturer advertises a new exterior sealant as providing "ten years of protection in every climate." An independent laboratory applied the sealant to 12 identical wooden panels and exposed them for six weeks to repeated cycles of intense ultraviolet light and sprayed salt water. None of the treated panels cracked or peeled, while several untreated panels did. The laboratory report warns that its accelerated test did not reproduce freezing temperatures, variations in application technique, or long-term expansion and contraction of different building materials.

Which conclusion is best supported by the laboratory evidence?

Six months after launching a curbside composting program, a county announced that the program had reduced the amount of waste sent to its landfill by 18 percent. Scale records confirm that total landfill deliveries declined by that amount compared with the same six months of the previous year. During the period, however, a large food-processing plant closed, and the county's population decreased after a major employer relocated. The county has records of how much material the composting trucks collected, but its announcement does not cite those records or separate household food waste from commercial and industrial waste.

Which evidence would be most useful for determining how much of the landfill decline was attributable to the composting program?