Question: Significant again? A new reading program may reduce the number of elementary school students who read below grade level. The company that developed this program supplied materials and teacher training for a large-scale test involving nearly 8500 children in several different school districts. Statistical analysis of the results showed that the percentage of students who did not attain the grade-level standard was reduced from 15.9% to 15.1%. The hypothesis that the new reading program produced no improvement was rejected with a P-value of 0.023.
a) Explain what the P-value means in this context.
b) Even though this reading method has been shown to be significantly better, why might you not recommend that your local school adopt it?