In response to nutrition concerns raised last year about food served in school cafeterias, the Smallville School District entered into a one-year contract with the Healthy Alternative Meals (HAM) company. Under this contract, the company plans and prepares meals for 2.500 elementary, middle, and high school students, with a focus on good nutrition. The school administration would like to
survey the students in the district to estimate the proportion of students who are satisfied with the food under this contract.
Two sampling plans for selecting the students to be surveyed are under consideration by the administration. One plan is to take a simple random sample of students in the district and then survey
those students. The other plan is to take a stratified random sample of students in the district and then survey those students.
a Describe a simple random sampling procedure that the administrators could use to select 200 students from the 2.500 students in the district.
b. If a stratified random sampling procedure is used, give one example of an effective variable on which to stratify in this survey. Explain your reasoning.
c. Describe one statistical advantage of using a stratified random sample over a simple random sample in the context of this study.