Which of the following is not a measure of central tendency?

The standard error is not a measure of central tendency. Measures of central tendency, which include the mean, median, and mode, are statistical tools used to summarize a set of data by identifying the central point within that data set.

The mean represents the average, calculated by adding all the values together and dividing by the number of values. The median indicates the middle value when the data set is ordered from least to greatest, effectively representing the point at which half the data points fall below and half above. The mode refers to the value that appears most frequently in the data set.

In contrast, the standard error quantifies the amount of variation or dispersion of sample means around the population mean and is primarily used to estimate the accuracy of a sample mean as an estimate of the population mean. It differs fundamentally in purpose from the other measures, as it does not indicate a central value of a data set but rather suggests how closely the sample mean is expected to be to the actual population mean.