Book Circulation and Middle School Academic Performance

The above scatter graph shows a positive correlation between average book circulation and average middle school reading scores in each Chicago zip code. That means that while there are a few outliers in the dataset, in general zip codes with greater annual book circulation tended to have higher average middle school reading scores. This may be because children in zip codes with higher book circulation tended to read more books and thus developed greater reading and reading comprehension abilities than children in zip codes with lower book circulation.

The above scatter graph shows a positive correlation between average book circulation and average middle school math scores in each Chicago zip code. Compared to the reading scores data set, however, the data points are slightly more spread out and the data set has more outliers. This seems to indicate that the relationship between book circulation and math scores is slightly weaker than the relationship between book circulation and reading scores. This makes sense, as reading more is likely to have a greater impact on one’s ability to comprehend what one reads than to do math.