California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) Math Practice Exam

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Which measure of central tendency refers to the middle number in a sorted dataset?

The mode
The mean
The range
The median

The correct answer is: The median

The measure of central tendency that refers to the middle number in a sorted dataset is the median. To find the median, you first arrange the numbers in ascending order and then identify the middle value. If the dataset has an odd number of observations, the median is simply the middle number. Conversely, if there is an even number of observations, the median is calculated by taking the average of the two middle numbers. This characteristic makes the median a useful measure, especially in datasets that may contain outliers or are not symmetrically distributed, as it provides a better representation of the central point without being skewed by extreme values. The other measures provided serve different purposes. The mode is the number that appears most frequently, while the mean is the average of all the numbers in the dataset, calculated by summing them and dividing by the count. The range measures the difference between the highest and lowest values in the dataset, indicating the spread but not the central point.