Salary disparity in California public university education programs

Research Methodology to Identify Disparities in Salary in Public Administration Organizations Select any degree, program, and state combination that you would like as long as there are at least 10 schools/universities total. Since the topic of this course is public administration, be sure to exclude private schools and focus on public organizations.
U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.). College scorecard. Retrieved from https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/
The combination selected is a major in education from four-year degree programs in the state of California. The selected schools or universities are as follows: University of Southern California University of California- San Diego University of California- Irvine University of California – Davis San Jose State University California State Polytechnic University – Pomona San Diego State University California State University – Chico California State University – Long Beach California State University - Fullerton Discuss the means in which the information was or was likely acquired and whether or not you think that it is valid and reliable for your project.
The means in which the information is likely to be acquired is through secondary sources. The source is valid and reliable for this particular project owing to the reason that the site from which the information is obtained from is reputable and also the side is current, which implies that the current information and therefore reliable. Furthermore, the information related to the problem being investigated and therefore the data being collected is deemed valid.
Select an additional research area/characteristic of this population that you are interested in learning about that is not readily available (satisfaction with the program, hours spent on schoolwork per week, etc.
An additional research area that I am interested in learning that is not readily available is satisfaction with the program. I would like to ascertain whether the students learning the program are satisfied with the course as a whole.
Discuss a method that you would likely use to acquire information on the topic, and include your method (e.g., survey) as well as a rationale for including each component (e.g., a rationale for including each survey question). You should include at least eight items or questions.
A method that I would likely use to acquire information on the topic is through a survey. The rationale for using this approach is that contrasted against other research instruments, surveys enable the researcher to attain speedier and more forthright gathering of a huge amount of data. A questionnaire is a technique for data collection that asks the subjects to provide either verbal or written responses to a particular set of questions. It is a fast, opportune and cost-effective method of gathering homogeneous data and information. Questionnaires can be utilized to gather information regarding knowledge, attitudes and experiences of subjects. On the whole, questionnaires provide numerous advantages (Saunders et al., 2015). To begin with, through the use of a survey, different types of data can be gathered from a huge number of research subjects within a comparatively short span of time (Denscombe, 2010). In addition, questionnaires make simpler the gathering of prospectively unbiased data in the event the subjects answered the questions as fairly and accurately as possible.
A 5 point non-proportional Likert scale was applied for the designed questions. The key objective of the Likert scale is that the statement indicates different viewpoints of the parallel attitude. The scales comprised of Very High, High, Uncertain, Low, and Very Low as well as Strongly Agree, Agree, Uncertain, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree.
The questions that will be included in the questionnaire involve: The degree program is well designed The cost of the degree program is justifiable The length of the degree program is sufficient The information taught in the degree program is pertinent The lecturers in the degree program ensure that the student fully comprehend the information being taught The courses in the degree program are pertinent The degree program is practical for the real world The application to the degree program is straightforward Discuss how the data would be analyzed. (For quantitative, possibly via finding simple means. For qualitative, via coding and related practices.)
The data would be analyzed through quantitative techniques. Data collected from the sources will be analyzed using an SPSS program or Microsoft Excel. Analysis included frequency analysis, analysis of variance and T-test, descriptive analysis. Frequency analysis indicates the number of cases in every level of a categorical variable (Saunders et al., 2015). Descriptive analysis through descriptive statistics illustrated the fundamental characteristics of the data through summaries about the sample and the measures. This will be measured through simple means. Furthermore, the T-tests and correlation analysis will be employed to ascertain the correlation between the two variables. Select one of the College Scorecard variables (annual cost, graduation rate, salary) with which to compare your new additional research area/characteristic. The College Scorecard variable that will be used to compare the new additional research area or characteristic is annual cost.
Discuss the test of statistical significance that you think would be best in determining the relationship between the two variables. Be sure to include such items as confidence levels into your discussion and to account for possible disparities in data into your discussion.
The test of statistical significance that I think would be best in determining the relationship between the two variables, that is annual cost and satisfaction with the program is 0.05. This implies that the confidence levels that are suitable for this study is 95% confidence level.
Discuss internal validity associated with your chosen research methods and possible threats that may be present as well as methods to minimize these threats.
Validity of a questionnaire can be delineated as the magnitude to which the research instrument measures what is purposed to measure. The questionnaire ought to sufficiently address all elements of the issues being studied. On the other hand, reliability is an essential but not adequate condition for validity. In delineation, reliability of a questionnaire takes into account its capability to generate the similar data when administered yet again under the similar conditions. Reliability encompasses the precision of measurement and in quantitative research lays emphasis largely on constancy and dependability (Denscombe, 2010). Internal validity takes into account the magnitude to which evidence supports a claim regarding cause and effect, within the context of a certain research study. One of the threats to internal validity in this study would be experimenter bias and this takes place when the persons who are undertaking an experiment unintentionally have an impact on the outcome of the study. Therefore, the selection of questionnaires in this case would diminish experimenter bias because unlike interview, the questionnaires conducted through email or over the internet implies that the researcher would be limited in impacting the research results (Saunders et al., 2015). Discuss external validity associated with your chosen research methods and possible threats that are present as well as methods to minimize these threats. Threats to external validity takes into account factors within the study that might diminish the generalizability of research results. In this case, one of the threats is selection bias. Imperatively, the 10 selected schools and the samples that will be included in the study might not fully represent the population as a whole. One of the main approaches that will be employed to diminish this threat is the use of experimental research owing to the reason that the random assignment of the participants to the different groups that will be comparing will diminish selection bias (Saunders et al., 2015).