• Thomas E. Weber, "Simplest  E-Mail Queries Confound Companies," Wall Street Journal (October 22, 1996)
• Jeri Clausing and Rebecca Fairley Raney, "More Members Are Plugged In, But Few Are Making Connections," New York Times (January 15, 1998)
• Pamela LiCalzi O'Connell, "We Got Your E-Mail; Just Don't Expect a Reply," New York Times (July 6, 1998)
• Bob Tedeschi, "Online, the Customer Isn't Always Right," New York Times (January 12, 1999)
• Bob Tedeschi, "Click for Customer Service. Then Wish You Hadn't," New York Times (January 19, 1999)

I   High, middle and elementary school teachers' e-mail addresses won't work.

II   High school teachers use e-mail more than middle.

III  Middle school teachers use e-mail more than elementary.
 

Population is teachers' e-mail addresses -- found on Leon County K12 school websites.

Stratified sample -- we divided our population into elementary, middle and high school addresses.

Random sample -- each email address had an equal chance of being drawn out of a bowl.
 

Population

• We could not get into two middle school websites.  We only used websites with easy-to-find teacher e-mail addresses.
• We gathered teacher addresses only.  We did not use administrative or other staff e-mail addresses.
• We gathered almost one thousand teacher e-mail addresses from four high, five middle and fourteen elementary schools.

• Mink randomly sampled thirty email addresses from each strata.
• Jamie randomly sampled thirty email addresses from each strata.
• The total sample of 180 included 90 from Mink and 90 from Jamie.

• We each sent three separate email surveys-- one to each strata.
• Each email's blind carbon copy (bcc) field contained thirty teacher email addresses.
• We did not share our name and school.  We only said we were Leon County Students working on a science fair project. 

Not everyone gets e-mail. 

• Twelve e-mail addresses, about one in fifteen, did not work.
• Middle schools had the least bad addresses, two.

• Middle schools had the highest response rate, 29%.
• Elementary school had the lowest response rate, 18%.
• A middle school had the best response rate of all schools, 44%.
• Teachers from 14 high, 17 middle and 10 elementary schools responded.
• Teachers from three of four high, all five middle and ten of 14 elementary schools responded.

• Except for one high school teacher, all have e-mail access in their classroom.
• Two out of three teachers have email access at home.

• Middle school teachers receive the most e-mails, about 47 each week.  High school teachers get 40, while elementary receive only 17 e-mails each week.
• They send about 13 emails each week.  High school teachers send the most, 15.  Once again, elementary is the lowest, sending about 11 emails per week.
• They receive the most e-mail from other teachers, closely followed by e-mail from administrators. 

• The average number of months using e-mail was 33.
• Middle school teachers led, having e-mailed for 36 months.  Elementary school teachers were the lowest, at 26 months.

Hypothesis I ==> High, middle and elementary school teachers' e-mail addresses won't work.

Correct!! Leon County K12 teachers' e-mail addresses failed.

• Five of 60 high school addresses failed.
• Two of 60 middle school addresses failed.
• Five of 60 elementary school addresses failed.

Hypothesis II ==> High school teachers use e-mail more than middle.

Probably not

• Middle school teachers have been e-mailing longer, 36 versus 34 months.
• Middle school teachers sent more e-mails, 47 versus 40.
• More middle school teachers replied, 29% versus 25%.
• Less middle school e-mail addresses failed, two versus five.

• High school teachers sent more e-mail, 15 versus 13.
• More high school teachers have e-mail access at home,  79% versus 59%.

Hypothesis III ==> Middle school teachers use e-mail more than elementary.

Probably

• Middle school teachers responded more, 29% versus 18%
• Middle school teachers sent more e-mail, 13 versus 11.
• Middle school teachers recieve more e-mail, 47 versus 17. 
• Middle school teachers have been e-mailing longer, 36 versus 26 months.
• More middle school teachers have e-mail access at home, 59% versus 56%.
• Less middle school email addresses failed, two versus five.

Dear Leon County Teacher:

Please answer these questions for my science fair project.  

I will not share your name with anybody.  If you want, I will tell you my school so that you may come to the science fair.

Sincerely,     Leon County Student

1  Do you have email access in your classroom?

2  Do you have email access at home?

3  How many "school" emails do you send each week?

4  How many "school" emails do you receive each week?

5  Who sends you the most "school" emails?  Please rank these from one to five, with one being the most and five being the least.
a  other teachers
b  school administration
c  parents
d  students
e  other

6  How many months have you used email?

7  What subject do you teach?
   a  art
   b  health
   c  language arts
   d  math
   e  music
   f  P.E.
   g  reading
   h  science
   i  social studies
   j  guidance