Statistical literacy
 is indispensable for knowing what's
going on.

Jim Cook

2009 2009            09/23/22

Authors Popular StatLit News Authors-Academic Statistical Literacy Numeracy Statistical Reasoning

UNM StatLit 2015 StatLit 2014 StatLit 2013 StatLit 2012 StatLit 2011 StatLit 2010 StatLit 2009 StatLit 2008 StatLit 2007 StatLit 2006 StatLit 2005 StatLit 2004 StatLit 2003

 StatLit News 2009

  • Assess and Grade: AACU develops Quantitative Literacy rubric. Australia (ABS) creates Statistical Literacy competencies by grade.

  • NNN's journal Numeracy in its second year with articles by Joel Best, Bernie Madison (NNN) and David Bressoud (Macalester).

  • StatLit.org Grows: Visits up 28%, downloads up 73% and domain referrals up 47%.  2009 Totals: 132,000 visits, 184,000 downloads and 40,000 domain referrals. Google-ranked as the #1 site for "statistical literacy" for the 5th consecutive year.

  • Sad News: Gerald Bracey, "one of the most erudite, prolific and acidic critics of national education policy", dies at age 69.

Our Top New Books in 2009
  1. Making Sense of Statistical Studies (ASA) by Roxy Peck, Daren Starnes, Henry Kranendonk, and June Morita.

  2. Picturing the Uncertain World by Howard Wainer

  3. Interpreting Economic and Social Data by Othmar Winkler.

  4. Percentages by Tom Knapp

  5. A Guide to Teaching Statistics by Michael Hulsizer and Linda Woolf

  6. The Statistical Odyssey of Herkimer and the Stat Pack by Sanderson Smith

NUMERACY (NNN) JOURNAL

Numeracy: E-Journal

Numeracy is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal launched in 2008.  Numeracy aims to support education at all levels that integrates quantitative skills across disciplines. The journal seeks evidence-based articles. See Vacher's NECQL and PKAL presentations.

Numeracy Editors

Len Vacher (left) and Dorothy Wallace (right) are editors of Numeracy: Advancing Education in Quantitative Literacy published by the National Numeracy Network, supported by U. of S. Florida Libraries and hosted by the Berkeley Electronic Press™.

2009: Volume 2, Issue 1 << All Papers

2009: Volume 2, Issue 2 << All Papers

QR/QL GRANTS & CAMPAIGNS

Statistical Literacy for Teachers

"Making the most of system data" by Dr Robyn Pierce (left) and Dr Helen Chick. Goal: "to classify the statistical literacy teachers need to gain value from reports, and ... ascertain ... the perceptions that ... pose barriers to teachers..." See The Statistical Literacy They Need to Interpret School Assessment Data and Teacher's Beliefs and Views about Statistics Education.

Math you need when needed

NSF awarded Phase 2 grants, 'The Math You Need , When You Need It,'  for "resources that introduce quantitative skills into intro geo-science courses to increase the quantitative literacy of students."  One was $283,129 to Highline Community College.  Eric Baer is the PI.  A second was $218,438 to the U. of Wis-Oshkosh. Jennifer Wenner (right) is the PI.

Statistical Literacy Grant

Karen Briggs, Associated Professor of Mathematics at North Georgia State, received a $1,000 grant to fund a statistical literacy project: Identifying and Evaluating Statistics Found in Popular Media.  The course will "require students to evaluate the validity of statistical arguments that appear in current popular media articles."   Grant proposal.

RSS Ten Year StatLit Campaign

The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is planning "a 10-year (2010- 2020) campaign which will focus on raising the statistical literacy of society as a whole: students and teachers ..., employees and employers, from government ... to business, and a wide range of users ... including a strong focus on the citizen user, and the media." Dr. David Hand (right) is President.

AACU: QL ASSESSMENT

AACU Quantitative Literacy Rubric 2009

AACU issues VALUE: Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education) rubrics.  Quantitative Literacy (QL) – also known as Numeracy or Quantitative Reasoning (QR) – is a "habit of mind," competency, and comfort in working with numerical data. Individuals with strong QL skills possess the ability to reason and solve quantitative problems from a wide array of authentic contexts and everyday life situations. They understand and can create sophisticated arguments supported by quantitative evidence and they can clearly communicate those arguments in a variety of formats (using words, tables, graphs, mathematical equations, etc., as appropriate."  "Virtually all of today’s students, regardless of career choice, will need basic QL skills such as the ability to draw information from charts, graphs, and geometric figures, and the ability to accurately complete straightforward estimations and calculations."

Quantitative Literacy Rubric Team

The team that developed the AACU Quantitative Literacy Rubric  included Nathan Grawe (left), Co-director of the QuirK Project at Carleton College, and Corri Taylor (right), President of the National Numeracy Network (Wellesley College). Other members included Joan Hawthorne, Assistant Provost for Assessment and Achievement (Univ. of  North Dakota), Michael Burke and Jean Mach English (College of San Mateo), and Rolf Enger ( Author of Vision for Tomorrow: Preparing Leaders), Richard Hughes and Steven Jones, Director of Academic Assessment  (US Air Force Academy).

AACU QL Assessment Rubric: Details #1

Interpretation: "Ability to explain information presented in mathematical forms (e.g., equations, graphs, diagrams, tables, words)."  Representation: "Ability to convert relevant information into various mathematical forms (e.g., equations, graphs, diagrams, tables, words)." Application / Analysis: "Ability to make judgments and draw appropriate conclusions based on the quantitative analysis of data, while recognizing the limits of this analysis." 

AACU QL Assessment Rubric: Details #2

Communication: "Expressing quantitative evidence in support of the argument or purpose of the work (in terms of what evidence is used and how it is formatted, presented, and contextualized)."
Assumptions
: "Ability to make and evaluate important assumptions in estimation, modeling, and data analysis." [Ed., Assumptions can include Joel Best's focus on the social construction of statistics ] 
Calculation
[Self-explanatory]. 

STATISTICAL LITERACY COMPETENCIES

ABS: Statistical Literacy Criteria

The ABS Statistical Education Unit led by Gai Mooney, reviewed the literature to define statistical literacy. From this four criteria were identified: (1) Data awareness.  (2) The ability to understand statistical concepts. (3) The ability to analyse, interpret and evaluate statistical information.  (4) The ability to communicate statistical information and understandings.

ABS: Stat-Lit Competencies by Grade

The Australian Bureau of Statistics Education page presents the the form of each competency for various grades in primary and secondary school.  For the Data Awareness competency, primary students were expected to read the data, junior secondary (intermediate) were expected to read between the data and senior secondary were expected to read beyond the data.  [Ed.  This template is well worth detailed examination.] 

NEW BOOKS: GENERAL INTEREST

Picturing the Uncertain World

How to Understand, Communicate, and Control Uncertainty through Graphical Display by Howard Wainer.  Product description: "an extraordinary graphical adventure, revealing how the visual communication of data offers answers to vexing questions yet also highlights the measure of uncertainty in almost everything we do."  See his other graph-based books.

Now You See It

Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis by Stephen Few. "this manual features graphs and practical analytical techniques that can be applied to a broad range of data analysis tools. This approach is particularly valuable to those who need to make sense of quantitative business data by discerning meaningful patterns, trends ..."

Making Data Talk

Making Data Talk: Communicating Public Health Data to the Public, Policy Makers, and the Press by David Nelson, Bradford Hesse and Robert Croyle.  Aim: "to summarize and synthesize research on the selection and presentation of data pertinent to public health, and to provide practical suggestions ... on how scientists ... can better communicate data."

Rules for Graphic Presentations

Practical Rules for Graphic Presentation of Business Statistics (Classic Reprint 1946) by Louis Smart. "The functions of charts arc manifold. However, important functions are: (i) to intrigue the imagination of the reader ... and (2) to emphasize significant relationships because of their importance, since oftentimes these ... are lost in the multitude of figures in the table."

Sway: Irrational Behavior

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori and Rom Brafman.  "Sway, the submerged mental drives that undermine rational action, from the desire to avoid loss to a failure to consider all the evidence or to perceive a person or situation beyond the initial impression and the reluctance to alter a plan that isn't working."

SuperFreakonomics

SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance by Levitt and Dubner.  Asks not only the tough questions, but the unexpected ones: What's more dangerous, driving drunk or walking drunk? Why is chemotherapy prescribed so often if it's so ineffective? Can a sex change boost your salary? 

UK: Abstract of Statistics 2009

Annual Abstract of Statistics 2009 by the National Office of Statistics [UK]. "A statistical encyclopaedia including over 10,000 series of data and covering key aspects of the UK's economic, social and industrial life. The data are presented in easy-to-read tables and supported by notes."

2009 US Statistical Abstract

New tables include Retail Prescription Drug Sales. Selected Notifiable Diseases, Alternative Fueled Vehicles and Vehicle Fuels, and  Participation in Selected Sports Activities.   The Statistical Abstract of the United States, published since 1878, is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics for the United States. 

NEW BOOKS: PROFESSIONAL INTEREST

Interpreting Economic-Social Data

Interpreting Economic and Social Data: A Foundation of Descriptive Statistics (2009) by Othmar Winkler. "Statisticians accept as a self evident principle that there is one general theory of statistics that applies equally to all fields,.... Yet, important applications in economics and the social sciences in general are not covered by what today is considered 'the theory of statistics.' "

Making Sense of Stat Studies

Making Sense of Statistical Studies (MSSS, ASA) by Roxy Peck, Daren Starnes, Henry Kranendonk, and June Morita. "15 investigations that align with recommendations from the NCTM Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (PSSM, 2000) and the ASA–endorsed publication: Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics (GAISE)."

A Guide to Teaching Statistics

Michael Hulsizer and Linda Woolf have co-authored the most comprehensive review of the theory, research and practices related to the teaching of statistics currently available.  "Quantitative literacy is only a small component of statistical literacy. Statistics is not branch of mathematics but is rather a distinct discipline within the liberal arts." website.  47 pages of references.

The Flaw of Averages

The Flaw of Averages: Why We Underestimate Risk in the Face of Uncertainty (2009) by Sam L. Savage.  "The Flaw of Averages also ensures that plans based on averages of such uncertainties as customer demand, completion time, and interest rate are below projection, behind schedule, and beyond budget. In his book, Savage ... offer[s] an approach to curing the Flaw of Averages."

Case Studies for QR (2nd Ed)

Case Studies for Quantitative Reasoning (2nd ed.) by Madison, Boersma, Diefenderfer and Dingman.  A case book of news stories. Topics: 1) Numbers and Quantities, 2) Percent and % change, 3) Measurement and Indices, 4) Linear and Exponential growth, 5) Graphical Interpretation and Production, and 6) Counting, Probability, Odds & Risk. 

US Cost of Living: 1880-2000

The Cost of Living in America: A Political History of Economic Statistics, 1880-2000 by Thomas Stapleford.  "Stapleford has done a magnificent job taking us inside the BLS to demonstrate the political and ideological structures, in the government and out, that have so decisively framed the single most important index generated by the American state." Nelson Lichtenstein.

Percentages

Percentages by Tom Knapp.  Original available at http://tomswebpage.net/

Topics: 1: The basics.  2: Interpreting percentages.  3: Percentages and probability.   4: Sample percentages vs. population percentages.  5: Statistical inferences for differences between percentages and ratios of percentages   6: Graphing percentages.  7: Percentage overlap of two frequency distributions.   8: Dichotomizing continuous variables: Good idea or bad idea? 9: Percentages and reliability.  10: Wrap-up. 

Reliability of Measuring Instruments

Reliability of Measuring Instruments by Tom Knapp.  Original available at http://tomswebpage.net/

Topics: 1 What do we mean by the reliability of a measuring instrument?  2 Measurement error.  3 Reliability theory (abridged, with examples).  4 Attenuation.  5 The interpretation of individual measurements.  6 The reliability of difference scores.  7 reliability of a single item.  8  The internal consistency of multi-item tests.  9 Intraclass correlations.  10 Two vexing problems.  11 Statistical inferences regarding instrument reliability.  12 A very nice real-data example.  13 Special topics.  14 The reliability of claims.   Appendices...

Statistical Literacy in the Social Sciences

Confronting Statistical Literacy in the Undergraduate Social Science Curriculum by Wade and Goodfellow (2009). Sociological Viewpoints; Fall 2009, Vol. 25, p75. Including statistical literacy as a major subject in the undergraduate Social Science Curriculum affirmed by the American Sociological Association (ASA). Describes statistical literacy. Notes that literacy, mathematical and statistical skills, context of knowledge, and critical questions comprise the four knowledge elements. Includes the seven elements defined by the National Council of Education & the Disciplines which characterize QL. [Not publicly accessible]

Think twice   [added 2013]

Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition by M. J. Mauboussin.  Shows that a "majority of decisions—no matter how good the intentions ... —are mismanaged, resulting in a huge toll on organizations, the people they employ, and even the people they serve." "we often fall victim to simplified  routines that prevent us from coping with complex realities"

The Numbers Guy: 2009

Carl Bialik

Carl Bialik, the Wall Street Journal "Numbers Guy," went prolific with more than 40 articles in 2009 compared to 24 in  2008, 11 in 2007 and 23 in 2006. He co-writes The Daily Fix, a sports column that appears each weekday morning on WSJ.com. Carl has a degree in mathematics and physics from Yale University.  Check out his WSJ blog.

Simpson's Paradox & Unemployment

The US unemployment rate is higher today for school dropouts and for college grads than in 1980.  But US unemployment is lower today (10.2%) than in 1980 (10.8%).  How is this possible?   Cari Tuni researched this paradox in her 12/09/2009 WSJ article: Good Data and Flawed Conclusions. She argues that "in a statistical anomaly dubbed Simpson's Paradox, aggregated numbers obscure trends in the job market, medicine and baseball."  [Note the graph.]

National Numeracy Network (NNN)

NNN Annual Meeting

Corri Taylor, President, convened the 2009 meeting of the National Numeracy Network (NNN) at the Univ. of Washington, Bothell.  Ellen Peters (Bates) gave the keynote: Numeracy and Decision Making. Talks included: Andrew Miller (Belmont Univ): A Problem-Based, Service-Learning Approach to Financial Literacy 6up. Hillyard, Nye and Krishnamurthy (UW-Bothell): Risky Financial Behavior

More talks:    Suzie Garfield: Stories That Count.     Neil Lutsky (Carleton): Say It with Numbers: The Persuasive Powers of QR.     Aaron Montgomery (Central Washington): Right Strategy, Wrong Game  6up.   Peter Littig (UW-Bothell): Playing Games in the Classroom: QR Lessons from Nash, Newcomb, and Schelling.    Robert Turner (UW-Bothell): Climate Change Comparison Mapping Project.     Maura Mast (UMass-Boston) Solving Real Problems Using Complicated, Confusing, Contradictory, Messy, Difficult Information.    Milo Schield (Augsburg)  Speculative Statistics and Public Policy 6up.

Numeracy (Journal of the NNN)

Health-Literacy Assessment

Len Vacher, co-editor of Numeracy, and Todd Chavez, U. Florida Librarian, reviewed the literature in the web of science on health literacy. They found found 10 assessment instruments from which they compiled a total of 48 assessment items.  "Probability (risk) accounts for half of the questions. These questions are heavy on ratios" A must-read for anyone interested in assessing numeracy.

Review of "QL vs School Math"

Maura Mast reviewed Schield's "QL and School Mathematics."  Schield recommended offering QL or Statistical Literacy along side Algebra II.  Mast said, "This is an excellent suggestion and is perhaps the most practical way to bring QL into the pre-college curriculum. Such a course is ideal for students who are not planning to go into a quantitative-based major in college..."

QL: JMM and MATHFEST

Numeracy: Assessing Basic Skills

Numeracy: Assessing Basic Skills and Knowledge by Milo Schield, Augsburg.  Colleges need to assess the numeracy in their students. Identifying the associated skills is a requirement for any grounded attempt at assessment. To provide content validity, those skills and competencies must be validated by subject-matter experts.  A process is proposed. Slides 6up

Simpson's Paradox: Rankings

Statistical Significance of Ranking Paradoxes by Anna E. Bargagliotti (Univ. Memphis, left) and Raymond N. Greenwell (Hofstra). 

See also Achieving Statistical Literacy in Elementary School Using Current Popular CurriculaAnna Bargagliotti, U. Memphis Slides 6up

Math Mistakes in the News

Math Mistakes that Make the News by Heather A. Lewis (Nazareth College with a future student).   In 2009, Heather taught Math 102: Thinking Mathematically.   She has collected some great stories on math mistakes that make news.   Most of her stories are written about in more detail in her positively enchanting blog, blog 360, along  with stories from her family's everyday contact with math.

Reality: Quantitative Illiteracy

Betsy Darken, Univ. Tenn - Chattanooga, talked on Facing Up to the Realities of Quantitative Illiteracy. My students need a "good grasp of multiplicative and proportional relationships." What I aim for is basic number sense, technology (calculator and Excel), money, multiplicative comparisons and exponential change. See her 2007 May/June Focus article (p.20)

Let Media Drive a QL Course

Using Media Articles to Drive a Q/L Course by Stuart Boersma (right), Caren Diefenderfer, Shannon Dingman and Bernie Madison (left) Poster.  "The project includes making the course transportable, adaptable, and more effective and creating assessments and scoring rubrics to both measure learning in the course and to compare that learning to the learning in two other courses."

Medical Accuracy: QL Course

Medical Accuracy: Content for a Quantitative Literacy Course. Stuart Boersma & Teri Willard, Central Washington U.  Slides 6up.  Referral bias occurs when the positive and negative referral rates differ.  "When the two referral rates are equal, the true sensitivity and specificity values will equal the apparent values. There is no referral bias in this case." 

Toward a Numerate Culture 

 Toward a Numerate Culture: A QL Project. D. Scott Dillery (Lindsey Wilson College) 1up. Scott reported on a 2009 QL conference at the Emory & Henry campus sponsored by the Mellon Foundation.  Observations: multidisciplinary helps buy in; common reading is good; Data Models “works”;  inadequate student support; less than expected faculty participation.

SIG MAA QL @ 2009 JMM

Maura Mast (right) is past SIGMAA-QL chair. Talks:   QL from a Service Division Perspective. Gary T Franchy (Director of General Education, Davenport Univ.) Approach: Use to the context of the programs to motivate & support the content of our [math] courses.  slides.   Mathematics & Democracy [Voting] by Kira Hamman, Penn State-Mont Alto Slides 6up

SIG MAA QL @ 2009 JMM

Talks: Making Quantitative Reasoning Central to a PreCalculus Course by Cinnamon Hillyard (left, NNN President) and Nicole Hoover (U. Washington, Bothell)  Slides 6up  Building mathematical & computational skills of science students by Matthews, Goos and Adams, (U. Queensland) 6upIncorporating QL into Research Writing. Kimberly Vincent (Washington State).

SIG MAA Q/L @ 2009 MathFest

Posters: Creating a Rubric for Graphing, Caren Diefenderfer (Hollins, right).   Encouraging Problem-Solving the First Day, Mike Pinter (Belmont).   Gather specific student information on an index card, Alice Kaseberg.    I Don't Teach Math. I Teach Students Math, S. Cederbloom (Mt Union).  Life’s Expectations And Requirements, Susan Beane (U. Houston)

QL WORKSHOPS

NE Consortium on Q/L: NECQL

Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Northeast Consortium on Quantitative Literacy (NECQL) was held at Smith College on Saturday March 28, 2009.  Neil Lutsky (left), Carleton College, presented Spreading Activation for Quantitative Reasoning in a College Community: Themes for Variations.  Maura Mast (SIGMAA-QL) and Cori Taylor (NNN) also spoke.

Q/L: An Imperative for the US

Bernie Madison delivered this talk as the keynote address at a quantitative literacy conference, Feb 12-13, 2009, hosted by the Ohio Resource Center (ORC) and the Ohio Mathematics and Science Coalition (OMSC).  See a video (48 min) of Bernie Madison's presentation. [Ed. This presentation is why Bernie is such a popular speaker on quantitative literacy.] 

STAT LIT WORKSHOPS

Statistical Literacy Colloquium

TEAM-Math (Transforming East Alabama Mathematics) hosted a presentation by Chris Franklin (left) and Gary Kader.  Franklin and Kader discussed "the importance of statistical literacy as a means of interpreting information delivered by media sources as well as the role numbers play in governing our lives with regard to citizenship, family and employment."

Stat Lit Institute for Librarians

University of Alberta Libraries hosted its third Winter Institute on Statistical Literacy for Librarians February 18-20, 2009. This training event provided strategies and skills for finding, evaluating and retrieving published statistics. Instructors: Chuck Humphrey (Data Librarian Coordinator, right), Leah Vanderjagt, Lindsay Johnston and Anna Bombak. 

MISC EVENTS

Statistical Literacy for All

Data for a Downturn Economy (June 9, 2009) for Librarians.  Moderator Dan Coyle (right), director of Market Planning, Statistical and Business, LexisNexis, opened with a brief discussion on the history and value of statistical literacy, citing authors John Allen Paulos and Joel Best as two leaders of the recent movement to focus attention on statistics education.

Interpreting Graphs Paper

Investigating a Hierarchy of Students' Interpretation of Graphs by Kazuhiro Aoyama (Aichi University of Education, Japan).  Published in the International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education (IEJME). This paper presents a hierarchy of the graphical interpretation component of statistical literacy.  Five different levels of interpretations of graphs were identified: Idiosyncratic, Basic graph reading, Rational/Literal, Critical, and Hypothesising and Modelling.

Turn Stats into knowledge

Innovative Approaches to Turn Statistics into Knowledge. OECD, Census Bureau & World Bank. in Washington DC.  Talks: Mike Pearson and David Spiegelhalter and : Visualizing Risk.  Amanda Cox (New York Time): New York Times Statistical charts.  Irene Ros (IBM): From Analysis to Creativity in Data Visualization. (continued)

Turn Stats Into Knowledge

Anders & Britt Wallgren (authors of Creating Better Charts): Statistically sound methods to turn time-series data into knowledge.     
 

Jim Ridgway, James Nicholson, Sean McCusker
Free statistics from statics: Empowering Individuals for Well Being & Social Progress.

STATLIT BLOGS

Tale of Four Charts

The latest data shows total consumer credit collapsing at an accelerating rate. The differences between the four graphs with the same underlying data but differing in what they do or don't take into account and whether they show the actual number or the change in that number. Blog: Junk Charts: Recycling Chart-Junk as Junk Art.  

Federal Employees Underpaid?

"Fact:  Federal employees make more on average than private-sector employees." But the BigBang Economics blogger asserts, they are "not overpaid after taking into account lurking variables such as full-time employment, education and age." Is this another instance of Simpson's Paradox?    Blog: Big-Bang Economics (2009/10)

Fighting Statistical ill-Literacy

New Statistical Literacy blog.  Statistical illiteracy is all-too-common in our modern society -- a world drenched with data that is reported by statistical illiterates and statistically-opportunistic hucksters. .  Now there is a blog dedicated to spotting statistical illiteracy. [Note: The StatLit blogger is also the web-master for this site].  Year-to-date Stats: (12/14): Visitors 336 and Visits 1,758.  Most popular blogs: SAT scores Tell us Zip. AP Creates Bogus Crime Wave. (See right)

AP Creates Bogus Crime Wave

"Of the children who ate candies or chocolates daily at age 10, 69 percent were later arrested for a violent offense by the age of 34."  This statistic was created by the Associated Press (AP). The StatLitBlog was the first to note the statistic was bogus. The AP committed the fallacy of the inverse. The correct statistic was "69% of respondents who were violent by the age of 34 years reported that they ate confectionary nearly every day during childhood."

GENERAL NEWS

UN Defines Statistical Literacy

Statistical literacy is defined as "the ability to read and interpret statistics, and think critically about arguments that use statistics as evidence" in the UN Development Dictionary. [Use the slider under "S"]  The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) "works to improve statistical literacy among users of data on poverty, the MDGs and human development.  The organization develops the capacity of government, civil society and the media by producing courses on statistical literacy and organizing training workshops."

Australia Stats Defines Statistical Literacy

Statistical literacy is defined as "the ability to accurately understand, interpret and evaluate the data that inform these issues."  "In order to make sound judgements, it is essential that we are equipped with the very best knowledge for research, planning and decision-making purposes. While it may be the issues rather than the statistics that grab people's attention, it should be recognised that it is the statistics that inform the issues." "In today's information-rich society, being statistically literate will give you an edge."

RSS Centre Stat. Ed. Relocates

The RSS Centre for Statistical Education (RSSCSE) relocates to Plymouth. Inauguration talks on 16 November 2009 included Teaching and Learning Risk in Schools by Pratt, Kent, Levinson, Kapadia & Yogui. 

 

Video of talk by RSSCSE Director Neville Davies.

We Should Teach Multivariate

"Every interesting problem in health, crime, poverty, environment, education, personal well being…is multivariate, has non-linear relationships, has confounding variables ... We don’t teach these things in school, but perhaps we should!"  
James Nicholson, Consultant to the SMART Centre, University of Durham. 

RSS: Statistical Awareness by Level

The RSSCSE produced an interesting graphic indicating different levels of statistical awareness depending on whether one is a statistical consumer or a statistical producer.

QL: Assessment and Enhancement

Oct 9, 2009, ICPSR held on online panel discussion on QL: Assessment and Enhancement.   Panel: Flora McMartin, Broad-Based Knowledge; Corrine Taylor, Wellesley College. Slides  WMV 70mb, MP3 20mb

DD4D – Data Designed for Decisions.  Paris.

June 18-20, 2009: Enhancing social, economic and environmental progress.   1) Finding the Story In this session we will explore how the story begins. Those who research, who explore, who document and collect. And who can see the bigger picture. They are the first link in the chain of communication and understanding.  2) Telling the Story: A classic topic for all those who visualise and communicate data. DD4D will also look beyond visual representation at the connection with the main storytellers of our age, the media. 3) Living the Story: This is where we find out whether and how the story is working for the user. How people use and interact with data, how it can support groups and individuals to make decisions. 

DD4D – Data Designed for Decisions. (Cont)

A conference for intermediaries between data, knowledge and empowerment. We will investigate selection, visualisation, interpretation and communication of data, and how it can be effectively used to: (a) help understand complex issues, (b) make data relevant at a personal level, (c) close the gap between objective measurement and perception, and (d) take decisions based on evidence. Participants should expect to leave with insights into their own subject area, a look beyond the usual boundaries of discipline, and new unexpected alliances. The DD4D programme committee: Jorge Frascara, Enrico Giovannini, Helmut Langer, David Sless, Patricia Wright and Richard Saul Wurman.

Adult Learning Mathematics: ALM

2008 ALM Proceedings

Assessing Quantitative Skills (p. 251) by O’Donoghue & Van der Kooij. Aim: "to assess a range of ‘quantitative knowledge and skills’ suitable for workers.     

Integrating Numeracy across the curriculum by Kathleen Crammer (p. 111).     

2008 ALM Proceedings

Three bridging course preparing students for the mathematical demands of tertiary study (p. 299) by Gillies et al.      

Definitions of Numeracy as presented by ALM members during conferences in the past ten years in Appendix 4.  [Perhaps a hundred statements or definitions.] 

NEW WEB SITES

GapMinder: Seeing the Statistics

Gapminder: Unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact based world view. Explore the world. See myths get demolished.  Explore gaps within countries.  Videos that debunk myths about Bangladesh, CO2 emissions, urbanization and more.  This software unveils the beauty of statistical time series by converting boring numbers into enjoyable, animated and interactive graphics.  Co-founded by Hans Rosling: "the man who brought sexy back to statistics."  

Improve Stats Education (Video)

Hans Rosling, founder of GapMinder was asked about statistical education.  In the video he replied:  "the ability to play computer games and the ability to develop interesting tools in Flash can now be used in schools. But an obstacle is that many schools block the downloading and installing of Flash readers.  Let there be Flash in schools and statistics will be fun."  

ABS: Statistical Literacy Web Pages

2009/10: Australia's Bureau of Statistics (ABS) introduces 'Understanding Statistics:' a central repository for all information, resources and learning materials for understanding statistical information and accessing, analysing and using the range of data that is available on the ABS website.

Internet Stats

From Google UK (Media Consumption):  "20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute" (YouTube: 5/09).  "5% of all time online is spent on Facebook" (Comscore, 4/09).  "In mid-2008, social networking accounted for around 10% of world-wide online time. This is a category that didn't exist 3 years ago." (Nielsen, 5/09)

2009 ARTICLES/REPORTS

Numbers in Everyday Life

Amstat News presented a statistical literacy course taught by Hahn [left], Doganaksoy, Lewis, Oppenlander and Schmee. "Building a statistically literate society is unquestionably one of our profession's major responsibilities and challenges ..." Take-Aways:  "Appreciate [the] limitations of observational studies and differentiate correlation from causation."

Numbers in Everyday Life (longer draft)

Also available for this unique statistical literacy course is the longer original draft of the Amstat News article, the opening presentation by Hahn, the Schmee class on polls, the Lewis class on Medical & Health studies, the Doganaksoy class on statistics in business, the Hahn wrap up class, and the Hahn class summary and reading list. The version of the Amstat News published by the ASA is easier to read, but the text cannot be copied. The OCR version is harder to read but can be copied.

Statistical Literacy: Wheat vs. Chaff

Statistical Literacy Knowing What's Wheat and What's Chaff by Chase Brady. Dated June 15, 2008, Univ. West Virginia at Parkersburg.  Distinguishes two types of statistical literacy: 1) familiarity with the terminology and methods of statistics. 2) ability to discriminate between reliable statistical information and not-so-reliable information.   Brady uses the second, newer meaning.

Washington Post: Stat-Lit

What is Quantitative Literacy?  "Statistical literacy, quantitative literacy, numeracy -- Under the hood, it is what do we want people to be able to do: Read tables and graphs and understand English statements that have numbers in them."  Milo Schield.

Test your Quantitative Literacy

Statistical Literacy Guide

How to spot spin and inappropriate statistics by Paul Bolton (2009), UK House of Commons Librarian.  "The three essential questions to ask yourself when looking at statistics are: Compared to what? Since when? Says who?" See Samples and Sampling, Confidence Intervals and Statistical Significance, Regression and Charts. [Links broken]

Math Paradox: More->Less

A Math Paradox: The Widening Gap Between High School and College Math by Joe Ganem: APS News 10/2009. The paradox: more school math sooner; more college students in remedial math.  Why?  Ganem's answers: 1. Confusing difficulty with rigor.  2 Mistaking process [calculation] for understanding. 3 Teaching concepts that are developmentally inappropriate.

CAUSE: Webinars*

"Using Calibrated Peer Review in Statistics and Biology: A Coordinated Statistical Literacy Project" with Ellen Gundlach & Nancy Palaez, Purdue.

OTHER

A Simple Guide to Voodoo Statistics by Ian Schagen Chief Research Analyst New Zealand Ministry of Education (May 2008).

StatLit Course Recommended

"9 out of 10 Seniors Recommend This Freshman Seminar: Statistics in the real world" with Jo Hardin, Pomona College.  CAUSE Webinar: Students investigate the practical, ethical, and philosophical issues raised by the use of statistics and probabilistic thinking in realms such as politics, medicine, sports, the law, and genetics.

Measuring Numeracy Historically

Quantifying quantitative literacy. Age heaping and the history of human capital by Brian A'Hearn, Joerg Baten, and Dorothee Crayen London: Centre for Economic Policy Research (2009). Published in the Journal of Economic History.  "We show that Western Europe had already diverged from the east and reached high numeracy levels by 1600, long before the rise of mass schooling or the onset of industrialization."

Numeracy Across the Curriculum

Which is bigger? 250 tonnes or 17%: A tale of salt. Jane Watson and Kim Beswick.  The potential for Numeracy across the Curriculum is illustrated. Based on a newspaper article about salt in the Australian diet, two avenues of investigation are suggested. One explores the meaning of the numbers in the article. The other involves data collection from a local supermarket and the software TinkerPlots.

Statistical Literacy Interest Measure

Colin Carmichael (Univ. of New England, AU) authored "Development and validation of the Statistical Literacy Interest Measure".  This paper "describes the development of an instrument designed to assess the interest that middle school students (years 7 to 9) have towards statistical literacy. In particular the paper presents a theoretical framework for interest in statistical literacy which is subsequently used as the basis for item development."  Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Postgraduate Research Conference   Faculty of The Professions University of New England Armidale NSW   P. 35.

Statistical Literacy: Essential Competency

"Statistical literacy an essential competency for both producers and consumers of data" This is the title of a short article by Ronald Seifer, PhD, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University and Director of Research, Bradley Hospital. He argued that "Unfortunately, many consumers are not statistically literate. But even more disappointing is how few producers of statistics are truly literate."  Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter (CABL). July 2009  Vol. 25, No. 7.

Promoting Statistical Literacy

Sue Gordon and Jackie Nicholas (Math Learning Centre, Univ Sydney) present "Using examples to promote statistical literacy."  This paper presents "empirical data on why and how international university educators use examples to teach statistics in service courses, based on recent research" and "relate the empirical findings to this [Gal's] model."

 

Stats: Your chance for happiness

By Professor Xiao-Li Meng, Whipple V. N. Jones Professor of Statistics and Department Chair, Harvard University.  Discusses the Gen Ed course EM 16: Real-Life Statistics: Your Chance for Happiness (or Misery).
Amstat News Fall 2009  

UK Statistical Publications

RSS: Significance

Life: what is the chance that we are alone? by Mark Burchell.  Of weekly wages and the price of wheat—and soaring IQs [The life of Henry Playfair] by Helen Joyce.  London murders: a predictable pattern? by David Spiegelhalter and Arthur Barnett.  2008: School league tables: what can they really tell us? by Harvey Goldstein. "their publication should cease."

Teaching Statistics

What is Strong Correlation? by Marcin Kozak (Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland).  "Interpretation of correlation is often based on rules of thumb ... to help decide whether correlation is non-important, weak, strong or very strong." "such rules of thumb may do more harm than good."

2009 QUOTES: Statistical Literacy

STATISTICAL LITERACY

  • Statistical literacy is "the ability to read and interpret statistics, and think critically about arguments that use statistics as evidence." United Nations Development Programme dictionary.

  • Statistical Literacy is the "ability to discriminate between reliable statistical information and not-so-reliable information." Chase Brady, Distinguishing Wheat from Chaff.

  • Statistical literacy can change lives, helping individuals make better personal choices, recognize misleading advertisements and public service messages, and develop a more relaxed attitude toward their health. The dream of statistical literacy embodies the Enlightenment ideal of people’s emergence from their self-imposed immaturity. In Immanuel Kant’s words, “Dare to know!”To boost statistical literacy, we also recommend introducing young children to statistical thinking and teaching statistics in school as a way of solving real-world predicaments rather than as a purely mathematical discipline.  Knowing Your Chances: What Health Stats Really Mean by Gigerenzer et al. in Scientific American (2009).  

  • Statistical illiteracy is largely caused by non-transparent framing of information. Gerd Gigerenzer in Making sense of health statistics. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Aug 2009, Vol. 87 #8, p567-A.

  • A major stumbling block for presenting sociological information to public officials and the general public is the lack of statistical literacy. Jeffries, Handbook of Public Sociology (2009, p. 286).

  • Statistical literacy, then, is the ability to accurately understand, interpret and evaluate the data that inform these [everyday] issues. Australian Bureau of Statistics (March 2009).

  • Every college student who graduates without statistical literacy these days has been sold a crummy education; statistical literacy is indispensable for understanding what’s going on in the economy, in science, in politics… and maybe even for understanding what’s going on in the arts. [Irregular Times Blog 3/14/09, Jim Cook]

  • As statistics become ever more ubiquitous..., so it becomes even more essential that as citizens we possess the statistical literacy to make informed judgments about how to interpret them and how to decode their political purpose.  Exploring Data: An Introduction to Data Analysis by Jane Elliott and Catherine Marsh.  (2009, Introduction)

  • With the increasing emphasis on evidence-based decision making, and the use of statistical graphics and information, statistical literacy is becoming a very important aspect of literacy in general. Today is World Literacy Day.  Sri Lanka Daily News  8 Sept., 2009

  • I found it very easy and compelling to link statistical literacy (and the implied understanding of risk) to the broader economic collapse ... [in lobbying with US Congressional delegates and staff] Jim Cochran, Louisiana.  Amstat News October 2009, p. 36. 

  • "Statistical literacy, quantitative literacy, numeracy -- Under the hood, it is what do we want people to be able to do: Read tables and graphs and understand English statements that have numbers in them."  Milo Schield in the Washington Post on What is QL?

  • Every interesting problem in health, crime, poverty, environment, education, personal well being… is multivariate, has non-linear relationships, has confounding variables ... We don't teach these things in school, but perhaps we should!" James Nicholson, RSSCSE open

  • Statistical illiteracy among physicians causes over-treatment, overdiagnosis and increased health care costs. It also affects patients, whose hopes can get unnecessarily raised by the claims that they read in medication advertisements. Statistical literacy should be taught in school beginning in the primary grades.   Science News Nov., 2008.

  • "It is a hidden secret that some Government Statistical Offices are doing as much as or more for Statistical Literacy of their countries than Academics, Departments of Education and Statistical Societies. It is for this reason that the ISLP asked the directors of some of the most successful statistical literacy programs of government statistical offices to explain how they do it."  Statistical Literacy: A Reader  April 15, 2009 by Armin Grossenbacher.

  • Statistical illiteracy (a) is common to patients, journalists and physicians; (b) is created by nontransparent framing of information that is sometimes an unintentional result of lack of understanding but can also be a result of intentional efforts to manipulate or persuade people; and (c) can have serious consequences for health.  Collective statistical illiteracy makes informed consent science fiction.  the dream of statistical literacy is of a broader scope and is fundamental to a functioning democracy. It embodies the Enlightenment ideal of people’s emergence from their self-imposed immaturity. In Kant’s (1784) words, ‘‘Dare to know!’’   Helping Doctors and Patients Make Sense of Health Statistics in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Volume 8, Number 2 (November, 2007). 

  • "across widely varying samples of health professionals, patients, and policymakers, in all countries studied, statistical illiteracy reigns supreme—often with catastrophic consequences for individual and public health. The media function as enablers of this problem." "Innumeracy ... is an enormous societal problem." Statistical Literacy A Prerequisite for Evidence-Based Medicine by John Monahan in Psychological Science, 2008.

QUANTITATIVE LITERACY:

  • QL supporters must do more than convince parents, teachers, school boards, education schools and others of the necessity of teaching QL at the pre-college level—we must argue nationally that a solid QL ability is an important part of college- and work-readiness (perhaps more important, for some students, than success in Algebra II).  Maura Mast, Numeracy 2009

QUANTITATIVE REASONING:

STATISTICS:

  • Our course co-coordinator gently advised us that the use of the word 'statistics' in the course title would be a turn-off.  Hahn et al, Amstat News, Feb 2009, p. 16.

  • Aspiring journalists should stop going to journalism programs and go to some other kind of grad school. If I was studying today, I would go get a master's in statistics, and maybe do a bunch of accounting courses and then write from that perspective. I think that's the way to survive. The role of the generalist is diminishing. Journalism has to get smarter. Malcolm Gladwell, Time interview. Oct 20, 2009
  • "for statistics to be used ... [they must] become known, available, and understood by wider audiences."  OECD talk in DC July 2009. ??

  • "let there be Flash in schools and statistics will be fun"  Hans Rosling, founder of GapMinder

International Statistical Literacy Project

Helenius New Director of ISLP

Reija Helenius (right) is the new Director of the ISLP from 2009-2012 along with colleagues Dr Pedro Campos (Portugal) and Dr Sharleen Forbes (New Zealand). "An ISLP advisory board will assist us in our work. All of us aim to improve statistical literacy worldwide."  The Director has issued a call for ISLP country representatives.

Statistical Literacy in Schools

"The Information Age demands the teaching and learning of new skills in data management, information processing and problem solving. There is a growing need for statistically literate citizens able to interpret, analyze and challenge statistical claims."  "We also hope to encourage more teachers to pursue statistical literacy for their students in school." Juana Sanchez ISLP Director 2008-9)

Statistics Education

Reason Nobody Likes Stats

Experiences and expectations: The real reason nobody likes stats by Kai Ruggeri (left), Martin Dempster, Donncha Hanna and Carol Cleary. "fewer than half [of the psychology students surveyed] were aware of the statistics portion of their course." "Most students claimed to be incapable of converting numbers from statistics into real-life meaning."

International Issues

International issues in education by Kai Ruggeri (left), Carmen Díaz (right), Karl Kelley, Ilona Papousek, Martin Dempster & Donncha Hanna.  Explaining the variance: level of confidence in their ability to master introductory statistics (49%), academic level (16%), and failing to see the relevance (15%). Earlier version.

Critical Numeracy Across the Curriculum

Critical Numeracy

Jane Watson: "Critical Numeracy is the ability to make discerning decisions about everyday issues that involve mathematical concepts.  We use newspaper articles as starting points because they are a great source of current issues that have relevance to students and their local communities. Articles often quote numbers ...to present a case or a particular point of view."

Four Resource Model

This Model for Critical Numeracy can be used to ask "What sort of thinking have we been doing?"  Goal; "to build students' capacities to ask questions about the meaning, validity and usefulness of texts containing mathematical concepts or information"

MERGA 2009: Australasia

Five Different Ideas of Rates

Revealing Conceptions of Rate of Change by Sandra Herbert (left, University of Ballarat) and Robyn Pierce (University of Melbourne).   Based on their analysis, rate can be thought of in five ways.    MERGA 2009 P. 217.  [Ed. Their analysis of the relationship between these five different ways is very thought-provoking.]

Statistical Literacy Gender Differences

Gender differences in middle school students’ interests in a statistical literacy context.   Colin Carmichael and Ian Hay (University of Tasmania).  Results indicated that girls were more interested in aspects of statistical literacy that related to surveys and boys were more interested in aspects relating to problem solving and also contexts that are associated with sports.  MERGA 2009 P. 89.

Teachers Knowledge of Statistics

Probing Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Statistics: “How will Tom get to school tomorrow?” by Jane Watson, Rosemary Callingham (right) and Erica Nathan   MERGA 2009 P. 563.

Pronouns and Comprehension

I, You and It: Pronouns and Students’ Understanding of Introductory Algebra by Judith Falle (University of New England).  "The change in frequency of use of personal pronouns by students indicated a change in their security of knowledge.  A shift from the general you to the more personal I, to the use of the vague it, occurred as items became more difficult." MERGA 2009 P. 177.

Statistical Education Research Journal (SERJ)

Student Interest in Stat.Literacy

Factors Influencing the Development of Middle School Students' Interest in Statistical Literacy by Colin Carmichael, Rosemary Callingham (left), Jane Watson and Ian Hay (all of Univ. of Tasmania). The question: "what are the factors documented in the literature that influence the positive development of middle school students’ interest in statistical literacy?"

Covariational Reasoning

Andrew Zieffler and Joan Garfield (U. Mn) presented Modeling the Growth of Students' Covariational Reasoning During and Introductory Statistics Course.  Educators should "strive to understand and improve students’ ability to reason with and understand covariation." Bivariate reasoning scores increased from 10% initially to 60% on the fourth try at course end.

Transitivity Mistake in Correlations

Castro Sotos, VanHoof, den Noortgate and Onghena authored The Transitivity Misconception: the belief that given "positive correlations between X and Y and Y and Z, the correlation between X and Z will certainly be positive." "Almost half (49%) of the participants showed evidence of this transitivity misconception." Those "showing evidence of transitivity held a soft misconception more often than a strong misconception."

Informal Statistical Inference

A Framework for Thinking about Informal Statistical Inference by Kattie Makar (U. Queensland) and Andee Rubin (TERC). "three key principles of informal inference: generalizations ‘beyond the data,’ probabilistic language, and data as evidence." Our goal is to "capture the kind of informal inferential reasoning reported by Ben-Zvi and Sharett-Amir (2005)" 

Learning English and Statistics

English Language Learners in Introductory Statistics: Lessons Learned from an Exploratory Case Study of Two Pre-Service Teachers by Larry Lesser (left) and Matthew Winsor.  Focus on understanding the challenges of Spanish speaking English-language learners (pre-service teachers) in statistics education. Notes the importance of context and confusion among registers (subsets of language)

Medical Diagnosis Base-Rate Bias

Question Format and Representations: Do Heuristics and Biases Apply to Statistics Students? by Jennifer Kaplan (left) and Juan Du. An in-depth investigation of various aspects of the "medical diagnosis problem": a two-stage conditional probability problem. 

2009 ASA Journal of Statistical Education (JSE)

Significant loss of Interest

2008: The Effect of a Student-Designed Data Collection Project on Attitudes Toward Statistics by Lisa Carnell (HighPoint Univ.) One class of undergraduate statistics students [had] a data-collection project that they themselves designed and implemented. A second class, used as a control, did not have this option. "Both groups showed a significant loss in interest during the course."

Activities Don't Help Knowing

Do Hands-On Activities Increase Student Understanding? by Thomas Pfaff (right) and Aaron Weinberg (Ithaca College). "Describes ... four hands-on activities." "Students investigated the ... central limit theorem, confidence intervals and hypothesis testing."  "Despite our attempts...., their performance on the assessments generally did not improve."

Higher Involvement/Satisfaction

Teaching Statistics in an Activity Encouraging Format by Sytse Knypstra (University of Groningen, The Netherlands).  Each group had to perform certain tasks (e.g., explaining theory and/or solutions of problems) and have separate regular meetings with the teacher. Students report higher involvement and greater satisfaction in this format than in the traditional format.

Math Needed in Business?

How Much Math Do Students Need to Succeed in Business and Economics Statistics? by Green (left), Stone, Zegeye and Charles (Ball State Univ.). "Taking more math credit hours, taking math courses that emphasize calculus, and imposing a minimum grade of C- on the prerequisite math course have significant positive impacts on student grade performance."

Ambiguous Words in Statistics

Lexical Ambiguity in Statistics: What do students know about the words association, average, confidence, random and spread? Co-authored by Jennifer J. Kaplan (right, Michigan State Univ.), Diane G. Fisher (Univ. of Louisiana - Lafayette) and Neal T. Rogness (Grand Valley State Univ.).   Journal of Statistics Education Volume 17, Number 3 (2009).

Language and Statistics

The Interplay Between Spoken Language and Informal Definitions of Statistical Concepts Ilana Lavy and Michal Mashiach-Eizenberg (The Academic College of Emek Yezreel, Israel)  "high percentage of them failed to provide correct definitions of...statistical concepts." "everyday use of the terms used ..., influenced the informal definitions provided by the students."

ASA JSM: Statistical Literacy 2009

Statistical Literacy: 2009

Milo Schield (Augsburg College) chaired this 12th JSM session on statistical literacy with 130 attendees. He also organized a session on Numeracy. Milo presented "Confound Those Speculative Statistics."  Speculative statistics -- model-based statistics -- are indistinguishable from those with real counts and measures but are susceptible to confounding.  6up

Cult of Statistical Significance

presented by Stephen Ziliak (right) and co-authored with Deidre McCloskey. Their thesis: "Statistical significance at the 5% or other arbitrary level is neither necessary nor sufficient for proving discovery of a scientific or commercially relevant result."  To wit, "a finding of “statistical” significance ... is, on its own, valueless, a meaningless parlor game."   6up   4up

10 Weaknesses in clinical trials

Ronald R Gauch (Marist College) presented Statistical Challenges in Medical Research: What Consumers Need to Know. Clinical trials are the gold standard for using statistical associations as evidence for causal connections.  6up  Ron presents 10 kinds of weakness in clinical trials that can undercut these causal conclusions. [Ed. Students should know this.]

Spinning Heads; Spinning News

Presented by Rebecca Goldin (George Mason University). "misrepresentations come from misunderstanding: •The difference between causation and correlation •The meaning of statistically significant •Orders of magnitude, and the “prevalence” of a problem •Confounding factors •Relative risk versus absolute risk •Margin of error •Importance of scientific consensus   6up

Five Other Slide Presentations

1) Telling the story to learn the statistics 6up by Bailer and Campbell.   2) Know Your Chances: Curriculum to Help Students Be Better Consumers of Statistics  2up (4.7mb) by Woloshin and Schwartz
3) Formal Debates to Clarify the Objectives of an Intro Stats Course 4up by Dan Schafer (Author: The Statistical Sleuth). Vaccination debate 1up 4) Designing Observational Studies 1up  Elizabeth Stuart (Johns Hopkins)
5) Statistical Literacy and Attitudes over two semesters 6up Amy Phelps

Causation in Media Headlines

Presented by Robert Raymond (right, Univ. of St. Thomas) and co-authored with Milo Schield.  They analyzed 2,000 headlines of news articles involving numbers.  Of those titles with words describing an association, 61% involved action verbs like 'helps', 'ups'. 'cuts'  and 'raises.'  4% used words explicitly stating causation or association. 6up slides

ASA JSM: Other 2009

Statistical Literacy Rubric

Designing Curricula Supporting the Development of Statistical Literacy by Rochelle Tractenberg (Georgetown U. Med Ctr). "Statistical literacy requires interpretation and evaluation of data ..., as well as communicating ... conclusions and their support by the data."  (Continued) See Tractenberg RE, McCarter RJ and Umans J. (2009): Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: KSAs

(Continued) "What are the SL-specific knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) to be obtained via the curriculum? • interpret statistical information • critically evaluate statistical information • critically evaluate data-related arguments • critically evaluate stochastic phenomena • discuss reactions to statistical information • communicate your understanding/the meaning of the information • communicate concerns regarding the acceptability of given conclusions."

ASA JSM: 2008

Attitudes toward Statistics

Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics: An Exploratory Look by Marjorie Bond (left, Monmouth). Common Issues in SATS Research by Candace Schau.  Students’ Attitudes Toward Statistics: Are there differences among various majors?  by Rebecca Pierce and Molly Jameson .  [Editor:  Assessing student attitudes toward statistics is most critical.]

Sensitivity to Confounding

Applying Resampling to Analyze the Sensitivity of a Hypothesis Test to Confounding by William Goodman (University of Ontario Institute of Technology).  Goodman notes that "the analysis of potential bias by confounding “has never taken root in basic statistics teaching and is hence uncommon” in many important applications." 

USCOTS 2009

Letting Go Of Math

Jessica Utts presented Seeing Through Statistics by Letting Go of Math.  "Many of our students who take introductory statistics come away from the course able to compute a standard deviation, yet unable to spot an egregious example of poor statistical reporting..."  "we are doing a poor job of educating the next generation. We can do better, but how do we make the shift?"

Stat Ed Radical Ideas: Drop This; Add This

Dan Brick (left, Univ. St. Thomas) and Milo Schield (Augsburg College) presented a poster: Slightly Radical Ideas to Help Students Interpret Introductory Statistics. Five things to drop: All hand calculations; Most of probability including independence; Binomial and normal approximation; T-test and F-test tables, degrees of freedom, pooling; Chi-Square Test. (Students need to understand the thought and computational process of inference ...). Add some controversial topics.

NEW BOOKS: STATISTICS

NCTM: School Math--Statistics

Focus in High School Mathematics: Statistics and Probability (pb) by National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and Mike Shaughnessy. "analyzing data sets, constructing and comparing representations of data, and using samples and simulations." "They reason about distributions...to make predictions, and determine the allowable scope of conclusions."

Essential Statistics

Essential Statistics (pb) by David Moore. "same highly successful approach and pedagogy of Moore’s bestselling Basic Practice of Statistics, but in a more concise format. [By] careful rewriting, he has shortened and simplified explanations, to better highlight the key, essential, statistical ideas and methods students need to know."

Herkimer and the Stat Pack

The Statistical Odyssey of Herkimer and the Stat Pack by Sanderson Smith. A story about 10 students (the Stat Pack). They are serious students who progress from introductory statistical concepts to sophisticated topics such as inference and hypothesis testing." "Their leader is Herkimer, a cartoon character who provides stimulating questions ... to enhance the learning ..."

Quirky Way Remember Stats

The Hairy Larry Comics Collection 2007: The Quirky Way To Remember Your Concepts For Elementary Statistics! by Larry Shrewsbury. "the concepts are not only easier to learn, but are fun. All they have to do is close their eyes and they can just "see" the quirky comics that reminds them of the concepts they need for [their] Statistics Exam question."

What is a p-value anyway?

What is a p-value anyway? 34 Stories to Help You Actually Understand Statistics by Andrew Vickers. A fun introduction to ... statistics, presenting the essential concepts in thirty-four brief... stories. Vickers blends insightful explanations and humor, with minimal math, to help readers understand and interpret the statistics they read every day.

Introducing Statistics

Introducing Statistics: A Graphic Guide, Eileen Magnello "Exploring the history, mathematics, philosophy and practical use of statistics, this [book] will be of interest to anyone perplexed by the jungle of numbers in which we all live." See also Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics: A Mathematical History and Victorian Values: The Origin of Modern Statistics.

Concise Encyclopedia of Statistics

The Concise Encyclopedia of Statistics edited by Yadolah Dodge.  "The aim has been to provide a short and concise encyclopaedia for those who do not wish to purchase any of the several large or multi-volume encyclopedias in the field.   Practising statisticians, particularly those teaching, will probably find this a useful reference book... "  John Goodier, Reference Reviews, Vol. 23 (2), 2009.

Mosteller Autobiography

The Pleasures of Statistics: The Autobiography of Frederick Mosteller (Paperback) by Mosteller, Feinberg, Hoaglin and Tanur. "This volume is a companion to Selected Papers of Frederick Mosteller (Springer, 2006) and A Statistical Model: Frederick Mosteller’s Contributions to Statistics, Science, and Public Policy (Springer-Verlag, 1990)."

Statistics II for Dummies

Statistics II for Dummies by Deborah Rumsey.  "skills you need to take on multiple regression, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Chi-square tests, nonparametric procedures, and other key topics."  "provides plenty of test-taking strategies as well as real-world applications that make data analysis a snap, whether you're in the classroom or at work."

Stat. Analysis for Dummies

Statistical Analysis with Excel For Dummies by Joseph Schmuller.  "Create graphs, develop estimates, and apply probability Get the scoop on all of Excel's statistical tools and what they can do for you." "This easy-to-follow guide explains statistics in plain English and shows you how to .. make sense of it all — even if you're numerically challenged!" 

Probability & Its Applications

Introduction to Probability and Its Applications (hc) by Richard Schaeffer and Linda Young.  "text focuses on the utility of probability in solving real-world problems for students in a one-semester calculus-based probability course. Theory is developed to a practical degree and grounded in discussion of its practical uses in solving real-world problems."

HealthCare Statistics w Excel

Statistics for Health Care Professionals: Working with Excel (2nd ed.) by Veney, Kros and Rosenthal. Written in a clear, easily followed style keyed to Excel 2007. Introduces the statistics applicable to health administration, health policy, public health and other professions, emphasizing the logic of probability and statistical analysis in all areas."

Common Errors in Stats (2nd)

Common Errors in Statistics (and How to Avoid Them) (2nd ed., Pb) by Good and Hardin. "a thorough and straightforward discussion of basic statistical methods, presentations, approaches, and modeling techniques." "Addresses popular mistakes often made in data collection and provides an indispensable guide to accurate statistical analysis and reporting. "

Stats Through Apps (2nd)

Statistics Through Applications by Dan Yates, Daren S. Starnes, and David S. Moore. "The ideal alternative for juniors and seniors not going into high level courses such as calculus, but who are interested in an introduction to the important topics of statistics."  "Students ... focus on the statistical thinking behind data gathering and interpretation."

Web News 2009**

13,000 Views in 2009: Graphs Paper

May 16, 2007: Blogger John Walker said Schield's 2006 ASA paper, Percentage Graphs in USA Today, was "technical" but "pretty interesting."  The paper took off with over 8,000 viewings in 2007.  Less were expected in 2008. But in 2008 there were over 14,000 viewings for to-date total of over 22,000.  In one day (August 25th 2008), there were more than a thousand viewings of this paper.  Less was expected in 2009. But in 2009 there were 13,253 views for a new inception-to-date total of almost 36,000 views.  Truly remarkable for such a technical paper.

YouTube Videos (11/08)

Confidence (20,020): level (906), interval (64). 
Statistics: (9,500): song (5,800), rap (803), math (560), lecture (106).
Significance (5,340): practical (293), level (243), statistical (97), testing (94).
Hypothesis (1,710): test (183), testing (81), null (38)
Correlation (1,200): analysis (41), causation (20), coefficient (18),
Spurious (252), causation (249), Margin error (195), statistical significance (12)
Mean, median (115): See Mean, Median and Mode: Cute! 86,157 views

CARNEGIE FOUNDATION: STATISTICS PATHWAY

CC: Low Math Success Rates

"On some [community college] campuses, up to 90% of students test into this developmental mathematics sequence. Of those who actually enroll in such courses success is elusive, with course pass rates hovering around 50-60%.  In California a statewide study shows success rates in basic algebra of about 50%." President Anthony S. Bryk

Fong Leads Carnegie Initiative

To address the 70% failure rate in developmental math at community colleges, the Carnegie Foundation is "developing an integrated pathway to and through statistics."  The traditional requirements "do not serve well the vast majority of community college students." Bernadine Chuck Fong has been named a Senior Partner to lead this developmental math initiative.

Integrated Path To & Through Statistics

"Statistics, data analysis and quantitative reasoning are not only essential for a growing number of occupations and professions, they are the mathematics needed for making decisions under conditions of uncertainty, an inescapable condition of modern life."  "This is not a course- or curricular-design project, however—or not only that. This is a field-building movement that will engage practitioners, researchers, design / developers, institutional leaders and policy makers ... in ways that fundamentally challenge and change the character of developmental mathematics."

CC Students Knowledge of Math

What Community College Developmental Mathematics Students Understand about Mathematics by Stigler, Givvin and Thompson (UCLA). Thesis: "substantive improvements in mathematics learning will not occur unless we can succeed in transforming the way mathematics is taught."  Thesis: "students who have failed to learn mathematics in a deep and lasting way up to this point might be able to do so if we can convince them, first, that mathematics makes sense, and then provide them with the tools and opportunities to think and reason."   See also Developmental Math: The Problem.

OTHER JOURNAL ARTICLES

Journal Articles: Numeracy

Assess Numeracy in Addition to Written and Verbal Skills. Letter by Matt Griffiths.  Nursing Standard; 12/2/2009, Vol. 24 Issue 13, p33-33.

Do Parents Understand Growth Charts? by Ben-Joseph, Dowshen and  lzenberg.  Pediatrics; Oct 2009, Vol. 124 Issue 4, p1100-1109.  16% could not identify a child's weight, 32% could not identify the percentile of a point and 44% could not define a percentile.

Numbers Don't Lie, but Do They Tell the Whole Story? by Schillinger and Sarkar.  Diabetes Care; Sep 2009, Vol. 32 Issue 9, p1745-1747.

National numeracy tests: A graphic tells a thousand words. Lowrie & Diezmann. Australian Journal of Education; Aug2009, V53 #2, p141-158

Journal Articles: Quantitative Literacy

The Assessment of Quantitative Literacy at a Large Public Institution  by Yvette Nicole Johnson and Jennifer Kaplan  2008 CRUME.

Quantitative Media Literacy: Individual Differences in Dealing with Numbers in the News by Dolf Zillmann, Coy Callison and Rhonda Gibson. Media Psychology; Oct-Dec 2009, Vol. 12 Issue 4, p394-416

Quantifying Quantitative Literacy: Age Heaping and the History of Human Capital. Authors: Biran A’Hearn, Jörg Baten and Dorothee Crayen. Journal of Economic History; Sep 2009, Vol. 69 #3, 783-808.

Journal Articles: Statistical Literacy

Confronting Statistical Literacy in the Undergraduate Social Science Curriculum.  Sociological Viewpoints; Fall 2009, Vol. 25, p 75-90, 16p

Statistical literacy an essential competency for both producers and consumers of data by Ronald Seifer, Brown University Child & Adolescent Behavior Letter; Jul 2009, Vol. 25 Issue 7, p1-7.

Making sense of health statistics by Gerd Gigerenzer. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Aug 2009, Vol. 87 #8, p567-A.  "statistical illiteracy is largely caused by non-transparent framing of information."

Quantitative and Statistical Reasoning

Orchestrating Semiotic Leaps from Tacit to Cultural Quantitative Reasoning. Dor Abrahamson. Source: Cognition & Instruction; 2009, Vol. 27 Issue 3, p175-224

Pictorial representations in statistical reasoning by Gary Brase. Applied Cognitive Psychology; Apr2009, Vol. 23 Issue 3, p369-381.  Research shows that icons are better at communicating Bayesian comparisons in medical tests (avoiding the confusion of the inverse) than are Venn diagrams.

NEW BOOKS: EPIDEMIOLOGY

Epidemiology 101: LEAP

Epidemiology 101 (Essential Public Health) by Robert Friis.  "Designed to fulfill the four essential learning outcomes of Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP) a campaign of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU), Epidemiology 101 meets the needs of instructors teaching an overview or introductory course in epidemiology."

Eras of Ideas in Epidemiology

Eras in Epidemiology: The Evolution of Ideas by Mervyn Susser and Zena Stein.  Traces "the evolution of epidemiological ideas from earliest times to the present. Beginning with ... the dawn of observational methods, ...up to the development of eco-epidemiology, which attempts to re-integrate the fragmented fields as they currently exist."  

Stats & Epi in Mental Health

A Clinician's Guide to Statistics and Epidemiology in Mental Health: Measuring Truth and Uncertainty (Cambridge Medicine) (Pb) by Ghaemi. "Accessible and clinically relevant... describes statistical concepts in plain English with minimal mathematical content. Perfect for the busy health professional who wants to know which statistics to believe - and why." 

Design of Observational Studies

Design of Observational Studies (Springer Series in Statistics) (Hardcover) by Paul Rosenbaum. "both an introduction to statistical inference in observational studies and a detailed discussion of the principles that guide the design of observational studies." Reviews "ideas discussed in Rosenbaum’s Observational Studies  in a less technical fashion."

Environmental Epidemiology

Statistical Methods in Environmental Epidemiology by Duncan Thomas.  "Environmental epidemiology is the study of the environmental causes of disease in populations and how these risks vary in relation to intensity and duration of exposure and other factors like genetic susceptibility." Governmental safety standards and compensation policies are based on it.

Ethics and Epidemiology

Ethics and Epidemiology: edited by Coughlin, Beauchamp and Weed.  "successful and serious addition to the discourse of public health ethics. Textbooks and narrower treatises abound, but many suffer from a general thinness of discussion and philosophical sophistication. This book provides rigorous ethical analysis ... with an accessible writing style."

NEW BOOKS: SOCIAL STATISTICS

Quant. Tour Social Sciences

A Quantitative Tour of the Social Sciences (Hardcover) Editors: Andrew Gelman and Jeronimo Cortina.  Includes chapters on History, Economics, Sociology, Political Science and Psychology. Final chapter on Intent to treat: causal inference.

Applying Social Statistics: QR

Applying Social Statistics: Introduction to Quantitative Reasoning in Sociology by Jay Weinstein. "Applying statistical techniques in sociological research."  "In addition to the usual range of topics in descriptive and inductive statistics, it...illustrates the close connection between sociological theory and practice, on one hand, and quantitative reasoning, on the other."

Quantitative Data Analysis

Quantitative Data Analysis: Doing Social Research to Test Ideas by Donald Treiman. "this book doesn't just teach statistics-–it teaches how to use statistics to answer questions about the social world. In simple language, from simple percentage tables to fixed-effects models ..."  "packed with examples from real data."  Paula England, professor of sociology, Stanford.

Intro to Social Statistics

Introduction to Social Statistics: The Logic of Statistical Reasoning by Thomas Deitz and Linda Kalof.  A basic statistics text with a focus on the use of models for thinking through statistical problems. Focuses on answering questions: Why do some US states have high homicide rates while in others the occurrence of a homicide is very rare?

Best Quantitative Methods

Best Practices in Quantitative Methods (pb): edited by Osborne. "Best practices in Measurement, Research Design, Basics of Data Analysis, Quantitative Methods, and Advanced Quantitative Methods. Each chapter contains a review of the literature, a case for best practices in terms of method, outcomes, inferences, etc., and broad-ranging examples."  Hc (2007).

Research Methods: Quan/Qual

Research Methods for Everyday Life: Blending Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches by Scott VanderStoep and Deidre Johnson ." "fresh and engaging introduction to the process of social research and the variety of research methods, highlighting quantitative and qualitative methods and how to combine them."

Effect Size and Meta-Analysis

Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement by John Hattie. "This book is about using evidence to build and defend a model of teaching and learning. A major contribution is a fascinating benchmark/dashboard [effect size] for comparing many innovations in teaching and schools." See also What Works Best: a summary of the book.

R

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NEW BOOKS: MATHEMATICS / SPORTS

Math Explains Your World

One Hundred Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know: Math Explains Your World (Hardcover) by John Barrow.  "the mathematical ideas that offer insight into what makes the world turn around. They crop up in everything from physics to politics and whet one’s appetite for digging deeper.  [He] directs one’s attention to their larger significance..." (Steven Brams)

Impossible (2008)

Impossible?: Surprising Solutions to Counterintuitive Conundrums (Hardcover) by Julian Havil.  "A superb discussion of problems easily understood by a high schooler, yet with solutions so counterintuitive as to seem impossible. There are surprises on almost every page." (Martin Gardner

Practicing Sabermetrics

 Practicing Sabermetrics: Putting the Science of Baseball Statistics to Work (pb) by Gabriel Costa.  "by the authors of Understanding Sabermetrics (2008). ... How to compare players across generations; how to account for the effects of ballparks and rules changes; and how to measure the effectiveness of the sacrifice bunt or the range of the Gold Glove-winning shortstop."

Mathletics

Mathletics: How Gamblers, Managers, and Sports Enthusiasts Use Mathematics in Baseball, Basketball, and Football.  Brings "the game alive through the fascinating mathematical questions he explores. He gets inside professional sports like no other writer I know. Mathletics is like a seat at courtside." (Marc Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks)

Concept Mapping in Math

"Concept Mapping in Mathematics: Research into Practice" is the first comprehensive book on concept mapping in mathematics. How the meta-cognitive tool, hierarchical concept maps, and the process of concept mapping can be used innovatively and strategically to improve planning, teaching, learning, and assessment at different educational levels.

Pass Data Interpretation Tests

How to Pass Data Interpretation Tests: Unbeatable Practice for Numerical and Quantitative Reasoning and Problem Solving Tests by Mike Bryon.   "Data interpretation tests are fast becoming the most common type of numerical question in psychometric tests. At some point in their career many people will have to pass one."

ISI 57 IPMs: Durbin South Africa

Invited Paper Meetings (IPM): 

IPM 37: The roles of statistical agencies in developing statistical literacy. Organized by Reija Helenius (Finland)

Improving statistical literacy - Strategies and Experience of the Australian Bureau of Statistics" Siu-Ming Tam & Nicola Cross. (Abstract)

Readability and Ease of Use of the Eurostat Internet. Schafer.

The role of Statistics Portugal in developing statistical literacy" Pedro José Campos, J. Pinto Martins (Abstract).

IPM 38: Educating the public on how to use official statistics. Peter Wingfield-Digby (UK) organiser and chair.

Making Statistics attractive through Partnerships with the Media, Ben Paul Mungyereza.

Making official data relevant to students: Statistics Canada’s Education Outreach Programme Mary Townsend and Art Ridgeway.

IPM41:  Exploiting the Progress in Statistical Graphics and Statistical Computing for the Benefit of Statistical Literacy.   Organiser and chair: Juana Sanchez. 

How to Avoid Some Common Graphical Mistakes, Naomi Robbins

Using R and GGobi to Enhance the Learning of Multivariate Analysis and Data Mining, Dianne Cook (Abstract).  

Wikis, Dynamic Charts, Videos and other Innovative Tools to Transform Statistics into Knowledge, Enrico Giovannini (Abstract).  

IPM 42: Survey Research in Statistics Education. Organized by Katie Makar (Australia). Chair: John Harraway.

Did it Make a Difference? Evaluating transformational Change in the Statistics Classroom, Paul Fields (Abstract).

Methodological problems of survey applications in statistics education Teaching statistics through surveys - Experiences at the University of Southampton, Natalie Shlomo.

IPM 43: Research on Informal Inferential Reasoning. Organized by Katie Makar (Australia). Chair: John Harraway.

Cognitive Development of Informal Inferential Reasoning, Chris Reading.

Insights into Informal Inferential Reasoning in the Primary Classroom, Aisling Leavy.

Informal Inferential Reasoning About Large Scientific Data Sets, James Hammerman.

IPM 44: Teaching, Learning and Assessing Statistics Problem Solving in Higher Education.

Cognitive Issues of Assessment when Teaching through Problem Solving, Penelope Bidgood and Neville Hunt. 

Similarities and contrasts in learning problem-solving in statistical data analysis and modeling, Helen MacGillivray (Abstract).

The application of problem-based learning to statistics education: a case study, Freeman et al. (Abstract).

ISI 57 STCPMs: Durbin South Africa

Special Topic Contributed Paper Meetings (STCPMs)

STCPM 27: Interactive, data-driven and technology-enhanced approaches for probability and statistics education

Curricula Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of Technology-Enhanced Probability and Statistics Education (Abstract)

STCPM 57: Teaching and Learning Resources using Census@School

Census At School Resources from Canada Mary Townsend and Neville Davies

Relevant and Engaging Statistics Resources from Census@School UK. Doreen Connor and Neville Davies

Using CensusAtSchool as a resource for statistics teaching in New Zealand classrooms (Abstract)

STCPM 71: Statistically Significant Learning Experiences

Statistical Literacy Competitions and Statistical Literacy. Juana Sanchez (Abstract)

Creating Significant Learning Experiences in Graduate Statistics Courses through Statistical Literacy Assessments. Enriqueta Reston (Abstract)

Methods for Enhancing Student Learning of Statistics.  Patrick Murphy (Abstract)

Challenges: Significant Learning Experiences in Elementary and Secondary Schools. Campos, and Olievera. (Portuguese?)

ISI 57 CPMs: Durbin South Africa

Contributed Paper Meetings (CPMs)

CPM 3: Statistics Education: Interactive Methods in Teaching.

Evaluate Effectiveness of Interactive Videoconferencing System and WEB Aided Course Repetition in Medical Instruction

Interactive Exploration of Statistical and Probabilistic Concepts in Algorithms

Perform statistical and engineering analysis with the Excel Analysis ToolPak

The Effect of Using DVD in Teaching First-Year Calculus at a Distance: The Use of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test

Web materials for Statistics Education via CAUSEweb

CPM 22: Statistics Education

Statistical Education Analysis of the Malaysian Certificate of Education Statistics and Probability Examination Questions

Constructing Similar, but Different, Examinations

Global certification exams integrated into graduate statistics courses

Statistics’ ‘next top-models’: testing changes in attitudes toward statistics

The work in groups as a motivator in Statistics classes

Using Assessments to Help Students Learn

CPM 88: Statistical Education I

(In) Formal aspects of Independent Events Abuse of Use and Teaching of Statistics in Eastern Nigeria

Analysis of Statistics content and results of the first national examination based on the South African National Curriculum Statement (NCS)

Estimation of the Sensitivity and Specificity of Qualitative Diagnostic Test Under Normal Assumption

Gap Analysis of Employers Expectation and Work Readiness of Graduating Mathematical Sciences Students

The Challenges Faced in Statistics Education in African Countries

CPM 89: Statistical Education II

Changes in the Media Habits of College Students during the Last Five Years and the Implications for Education

Influential Mathematicians: Where do they Come from and Where do they Go?

On Measures for Resolving Student's Misconceptions in Statistics in University of Lagos, Nigeria

Populations, Samples, Measurement, Variables and Data: Pedagogically Undervalued Foundation Slabs of Statistical Castles

Statistical Education of Medical Students in Pavlov State Medical University

PAST EVENTS IN 2009

  • Interpreting Economic and Social Data: A Foundation of Descriptive Statistics.  A masterfully compelling argument on why statistical analysis in the social sciences is essentially different from that in the physical sciences. Winkler notes that many -- if not most -- of our statistical ideas originated in the physical sciences where such ideas as a fixed population parameter and a fixed relationship between variables was often the norm and deviations are aptly treated as error. But such ideas do not fit well in the social sciences where the human condition seldom involves fixed population parameters and more often than not lacks any fixed relationship between variables.  This book goes to the core of statistical thinking.  If you teach the use of statistics in a social context, you should read this book and understand this argument.  

  • Nov. 12-15, 2009. AMATYC 35th Conference, Las Vegas, NV. Amer. Mathematical Assoc. of Two-Year Colleges
    Schield proposes "Statistical Literacy: A New On-Line Gen Ed Course for Math Teachers."
    Developing Q/L by Beaudrie and Boshmans (S79).    QL: Reaching and Teaching today's Students by Amick and Marshall (S93).
    The Calendars of the Mayas by Cetepillan and Szymanski (S57).   Mathematical Heresy by Frank Weidenfeller (S63)
    Top Ten Things Students Have Trouble with in Statistics, Averbeck & Rumsey (W22).  Lessons from History of Mathematics, D. Bressoud (S78).
    Structuring e-Portfolios in QR course, Suzanne Topp (S142).  Using Model-Elicting Activities to Teach Statistics, Robert delMas (W28).
    Structuring the Out-of-Class Experience in Introductory Statistics by Roxy Peck (S145 and S122)

    The AMATYC 2008 survey (793 respondents): Of those answering the question, 64% agreed (450) that AMATYC should offer course work through an accredited university over the Internet for faculty wanting to update their skills or refresh their knowledge in certain areas. Respondents requesting Internet courses through an accredited university (450) were asked:

    • which mathematical topics they wanted to learn more about.  teaching developmental mathematics (67%), history of mathematics (58%), mathematics for teachers (50%), statistics (40%), quantitative literacy (35%), number theory (30%) and other (21%).

    • which instructional techniques they wanted to learn more about.  active learning (77%), teaching in context (45%), using classroom assessment for research (47%), quantitative literacy (37%) and other (8%). 

    • what technology training they would be interested in.  teaching online coursework effectively (72%), mathematics software (68%), calculator usage (39%), statistical software (34%), Blackboard (30%) and other (8%).

  • Nov. 6-7, 2009. SENCER Quantitative Reasoning Symposium, Saint Paul, MN.   Schedule
    Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul, MN will be host to the Midwest SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities) Center of Innovation Fall Symposium on Teaching Quantitative Reasoning through Civic Issues. 
    Evening plenary address by Professor Deborah Hughes Hallett:  What Can Statistics Tell Us?   
    Morning plenary address by Professor of Psychology Neil Lutsky from Carleton College in Northfield, MN.
    Talk by Milo Schield: Science Literacy Requires Statistical Literacy 6up slides.

  • August 16-22, 2009. 57th Session International Statistical Institute (ISI) Durban. IASE Chair: Helen MacGillivray Program
    IPM 37: The roles of statistical agencies in developing statistical literacy. Organized by Reija Helenius (Finland)  "Improving statistical literacy - Strategies and Experience of the Australian Bureau of Statistics" Siu-Ming Tam and Nicola Cross.  "The role of Statistics Portugal in developing statistical literacy" Pedro José Campos, J. Pinto Martins.
    IPM 38: Educating the public on how to use official statistics.  Tues, 9AM.  Peter Wingfield-Digby (UK)  organiser and chair.  "Making Statistics attractive through Partnerships with the Media" Ben Paul Mungyereza.  "Improving Use of Official Statistics - How Marketing and IT Help" Chun-Keung, Leo Yu.  "Making official data relevant to students: Statistics Canada’s Education Outreach Programme" Mary Townsend and Art Ridgeway. Discussants: Davaasuren Chultemjamts and Hilary Joffe.
    IPM41:  Exploiting the Progress in Statistical Graphics and Statistical Computing for the Benefit of Statistical Literacy.   15:30 Tuesday.  Organiser and chair: Juana Sanchez.  Using R and GGobi to Enhance the Learning of Multivariate Analysis and Data Mining, Dianne Cook.   Wikis, Dynamic Charts, Videos and other Innovative Tools to Transform Statistics into Knowledge, Enrico Giovannini.     How to Avoid Some Common Graphical Mistakes, Naomi Robbins
    IPM 43: Research on Informal Inferential Reasoning. Tues, 13:00 Tues. Organized by Katie Makar (Australia). Chair: John Harraway. Cognitive Development of Informal Inferential Reasoning, Chris Reading. Insights into Informal Inferential Reasoning in the Primary Classroom, Aisling Leavy. Informal Inferential Reasoning About Large Scientific Data Sets, James K L Hammerman. Discussant: Jim Ridgeway

  • August 14-15, 2009.  IASE Satellite Roundtable: "The Next Steps in Statistical Education"  Durban.  Program.
    Conference Committee: Patrick Murphy, Ireland (Chair and Joint Chief Editor, European Representative), Allan Rossman USA, Larry Weldon Canada (Joint Chief Editor and CD Writer), Richard Wilson Australia,  Enriqueta Reston Philippines, and M. Alejandro Sorto Latin America

  • August 6-8, 2009.  MathFest, Portland Oregon.
    Short Course: A Game Theory Path to Quantitative Literacy by David Housman (Goshen College) and Rick Gillman (Valparaiso University)

  • August 6-10, 2009.  Sencer 2009 Summer Institute, Chicago IL.
    "The National Center for Science and Civic Engagement invites applications to participate in the 2009 SENCER Summer Institute, planned for August 6-10th in Chicago and hosted by Harold Washington College. SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities) is a National Science Foundation-supported faculty development and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education reform initiative. SENCER supports the development of courses and programs that connect course content to real world problems, and by so doing, extend the impact of learning across the curriculum to the broader community and society. This approach has been especially effective in engaging women, minority students, and students who major in non-STEM fields."  "The SENCER Summer Institute (SSI) 2009 is one component of SENCER's national dissemination program designed to improve undergraduate education and undergraduate science education, especially in the STEM disciplines, and to stimulate civic engagement through the design and development of courses and programs that teach "to" basic science "through" complex, capacious, and unsolved public issues."
    Milo Schield, VP of the National Numeracy Network, attended.

  • August 1-6, 2009American Statistical Association (ASA) Joint Statistical Meeting (JSM).   Washington DC.

    Monday Other:

    • Mari Palta (U. Wisc.): Challenges in Teaching Advanced Statistical Methods for Observational Studies in a Subject Matter Context

    • William S. Rayens (U. Ky): A Course Template for Statistical Inferential Reasoning

    • Roundtable:  S. Dienstfrey: Removing the Veil from Publicly Released Polls: What Is the Statistician's Role in the Fight to Improve Statistical Literacy?

    Tuesday 2 PM:

    • Leonhardt, Vedantam & Alpert (NY Times, Washington Post, Barron's): Mediating Statistics in the Media  Org: Xiao-Li Meng, Harvard

    • Bill Rybolt (Babbson College): Why We Should Teach Introductory Applied Statistics Courses Backwards

  • June 25-27, 2009.  USCOTS: US Conference on Teaching Statistics: "Letting Go to Grow" Columbus, OH
    Featured speakers include Dani Ben-Zvi (University of Haifa), George Cobb (Mount Holyoke College), Peter Ewell (Center for Higher Education Management Systems), Ronald Wasserstein (Executive Director, ASA) and Chris Wild (The University of Auckland).    Workshop: Teaching Statistical Modeling by Danny Kaplan and Victor Addono.

  • May 1, 2009  Quantitative Literacy across the CurriculumOhio Mathematics and Science Coalition.

  • April 30-May 2  National Numeracy Network (NNN) 2009 Annual Meeting. U. Washington, Bothell.

  • March 28   Northeast Consortium for Quantitative Literacy (NECQL-XIII) at Smith College.  
    Neil Lutsky of Carleton College will give a talk: Spreading Activation for Quantitative Reasoning in a College Community: Themes for Variations.
    Rick Gillman of Valparaiso University will give excerpts of his mini-course Game Theory as a Path for Quantitative Literacy. 
    Announcements by Corri Taylor for the National Numeracy Network (NNN) and Maura Mast for the MAA's Sigma QL.

  • Feb 13, 2009.  Emerging Needs for Quantitative Literacy Across the School Curriculum
    Ohio Math & Science Coalition.  Keynote speaker and workshop leader: Bernie Madison.

  • Feb 18-20, 2009.  Winter Institute on Statistical Literacy for Librarians Univ. of Alberta Libraries

  • Jan 5-8, 2009 MAA JMM: Washington, DC.  Current schedule
    Mon. 1/5 2:15-4:15. MAA Minicourse #7A. A Game Theory Path to Quantitative Literacy. David Housman and Richard Gillman
    Mon. 1/5 4:30  Statistical Significance of Ranking Paradoxes by Raymond N Greenwell, Hofstra Univ. General Contributed Papers III 6up

    Tues 1/6, 2 PM, PosterQ/R in the Contemporary World.  Bernie Madison, Caren Diefenderfer, Stuart Boersma & Shannon Dingman
    The project includes making the course transportable, adaptable, and more effective and creating assessments and scoring rubrics to both measure learning in the course and to compare that learning to the learning in two other courses, one somewhat similar and one traditional. The innovative course derives from a collection of newspaper and magazine articles and is organized by processes of QR and not by mathematical or statistical topics. The project has produced the first draft of case studies of QR-based media articles and an accompanying volume documenting the learning results, pedagogical strategies, and a guide for using the case studies in a QR course is in progress.
    Tues 1/6, 2 PM, Poster:  Mathematics Across the C/C Curriculum: A National Q/L Initiative. Jim Roznowski & Christie Gilliland 
    Tues 1/6, 5:45 -7:15 PM. SIGMAA on Quantitative Literacy:  Business Meeting


    Wed January 7, 2009,
    8:00 a.m.-10:35 a.m. MAA Session on Quantitative Literacy Across the Curriculum
    Organizers: Kimberly M. Vincent, Washington State University, and Cinnamon Hillyard, University of Washington, Bothell.
    8:00 am. Making Quantitative Reasoning Central to a PreCalculus Course. Cinnamon Hillyard* and Nicole Hoover Slides 6up
    8:20 am. QL from a Service Division Perspective. Gary T Franchy, Davenport University Slides 6up
    8:40 am. Mathematics and Democracy. Kira Hamman, Pennsylvania State University, Mont Alto Slides 6up
    9:00 am. Using Media Article to Drive a Q/L Course. Stuart Boersma, Caren Diefenderfer, Shannon Dingman and Bernard L Madison 6up
    9:20 am. Medical Accuracy: Content for a Quantitative Literacy Course. Stuart Boersma & Teri Willard, Central Washington U.  Slides 6up
    9:40 am. Building mathematical & computational skills of science students. Kelly Matthews, Merrilyn Goos, Peter Adams, U.Queensland 6up
    10:00 am. Toward a Numerate Culture: A Quantitative Literacy Project. D. Scott Dillery, Lindsey Wilson College Slides 1up
    10:20 am. Incorporating Quantitative Literacy into the Research Writing Classroom. Kimberly M Vincent, Washington State University

    8:00 am.  Facing Up to the Realities of Quantitative Illiteracy.  Betsy Darken, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
    10:00 am. Achieving Statistical Literacy in Elementary School Using Current Popular Curricula.  Anna Bargagliotti, Univ. Memphis 6up
    2:15-4:15 pm. MAA Minicourse #7B: A Game Theory path to Q/L. David Housman, Goshen College, Richard Gillman, Valparaiso U.
    3:50 pm. Student difficulties negating mathematical statements and translating to symbolic form. Bonnie Gold, Monmouth U.
    4:40 pm. Numeracy: Assessing Basic Skills and Knowledge. Milo Schield, W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy Project. Slides 6up

NEWS IN 2009

12/2009:  New StatLit 2009:  All the news on statistical literacy for 2009.  Read about the new AACU rubric for assessing quantitative literacy.

10/2009:  New StatLit-Blog:  Fighting Statistical Illiteracy; promoting statistical literacy.  Blogs include "Average: 2.8 M sexual partners", "AP creates Bogus Crime Wave", "AP misreads Percentage Table", "Employers Rehiring… Really? and "SAT Scores Tell Us Zip!"

10/20: Gerald BraceyOutspoken public schools advocate Bracey dies at 69: Obituary by Greg Toppo, USA TodayDr. Gerald Bracey can rest in peace – the rest of us need to get busy: Generation YES BlogGerald W. Bracey, 69, one of the most erudite, prolific and acidic critics of national education policy, died unexpectedly early Oct. 20 at his home in Port Townsend, Wash.: Jay Mathews, Washington Post,

4/10:  StatLit News 2009Q1. The latest news on statistical literacy and numeracy.
A Simple Guide to Voodoo Statistics by Ian Schagen Chief Research Analyst New Zealand Ministry of Education

2/20: Quantitative Literacy in Washington Post. What is QL?    Test your Quantitative Literacy.

1/27: Quantitative Scholarship: Quality Enhancement Program at University of Texas San Antonio. Proposal

"The Quantitative QEP includes two components: (1) quantitative literacy encompassing basic analytical skills such as data interpretation and (2) quantitative mastery, which addresses ways to gather data, identify sources of error and conduct other advanced analyses. These critical thinking and problem solving skills are the same skills used by successful researchers. They also are tested on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE)." "... students must satisfy specific semester credit hours (SCH) requirements of the University Core Curriculum. These requirements includes courses in several domains: Natural Sciences: Level I (3 SCH), Natural Sciences: Level II (3 SCH), Political Science (6 SCH), Social and Behavioral Science (3 SCH), and Economics (3 SCH).   The Quantitative QEP would embed quantitatively-enriched materials in courses falling under all of these Domains."

OUR TOP 25 BOOKS as of 2009

Choice and order based solely on the opinion of StatLit's webmaster

Rank,  Author, Date and Title

  1. *Lynn Steen (2001), Mathematics and Democracy:The Case for Q/L

  2. *Joel Best (2002), Damned Lies and Statistics

  3. *Victor Cohn (1989), News and Numbers

  4. *Howard Wainer (2005), Graphic Discovery: A Trout in the Milk and Other Adventures.

  5. *Darrell Huff (1954), How To Lie with Statistics

  6. Jane M. Watson (2006), Statistical Literacy at School

  7. Gerald Bracey (2006), Reading Educational Research: How to Avoid Getting Statistically Snookered

  8. Robyn Dawes (2001), Everyday Irrationality

  9. Gerd Gigerenzer (2002), Calculated Risks: How to Know When Numbers Deceive You

  10. *John Paulos (1988), Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences

  11. *Lynn Arthur Steen (2004), Achieving Quantitative Literacy

  12. Stanley Lieberson (1985), Making It Count

  13. Othmar Winkler (2009),  Interpreting Economic and Social Data: A Foundation of Descriptive Statistics

  14. Edward Tufte (1983), The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

  15. *Jane Miller (2004), The Chicago Guide to Writing About Numbers

  16. *Joel Best (2004), More Damned Lies and Statistics

  17. *Howard Wainer (2000), Visual Revelations

  18. *Edward Tufte (1995), Visual Explanations

 *  Recommended for newcomers.

  1. *Lynn Steen (1997), Why Numbers Count: Quantitative Literacy for Tomorrow’s America

  2. A. K. Dewdney (1995), 200% of Nothing: From “Percentage Pumping” to “Irrational Ratios”

  3. *John Brignell (2000), Sorry, Wrong Number

  4. Hans Zeisel (1947), Say It With Figures

  5. *John Brignell (2004), The Epidemiologists

  6. John Allen Paulos (1995), A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper

  7. *Roxy Peck, Daren Starnes, Henry Kranendonk and June Morita (2009), Making Sense of Statistical Studies

 *  Recommended for newcomers.

PRAISE-WORTHY CONTENDERS:

  1. Richard Gillman (2006),  Current Practices in Quantitative Literacy

  2. John Allen Paulos (1993), once upon a number: the hidden mathematical logic of stories

  3. Jane Miller (2005), The Chicago Guide to Writing About Multivariate Analysis

  4. *David Murray, Joel Schwartz & Robert Lichter (2001). It Ain’t Necessarily So. How Media Make & Unmake the Scientific Picture of Reality.

  5. Phillip Meyer (1991), The New Precision Journalism

  6. Lynn Steen, Editor (1990), On The Shoulder’s Of Giants: New Approaches to Numeracy

  7. Sarah Cohen (2001), Numbers in the Newsroom: Using Math and Statistics in the News

  8. Stephen K. Campbell (1974), Flaws and Fallacies in Statistical Thinking

AMAZON's TOP TEXTBOOKS 2009

Ranks based on sales rankings at Amazon.com as of 8/2009.

These rankings fluctuate daily and don't include sales made directly by publishers to bookstores.  Rankings via www.salesrankexpress.com

Rank    Author and Title

1,244   Bennet & Briggs: Using & Understanding Math: QR Approach

2,430   Gonick and Smith: Cartoon Guide to Statistics*

3,848   Rumsey:  Statistics for Dummies*

4,528   COMAP: For All Practical Purposes: Mathematical Literacy ...

5,026   Moore, McCabe, Craig: Introduction to the Practice of Statistics*

5,795   Field: Discovering Statistics Using SPSS*

6,148   Burger and Starbird: Heart of Mathematics

7,072   Freedman, Pisani and Purves: Statistics*

8,497   Utts: Seeing Through Statistics

9,254   Larson and Farber: Elementary Statistics: Picturing the World*

11,603 Triola: Elementary Statistics*

12,542 Salkind: Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics*

13,092 Bluman: Elementary Statistics: A Step By Step Approach*

16,866 Voelker, Orton and Adams: Statistics (Cliffs Quick Review)*

17,022 Donnelly: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics*

17,528 Hand:  Statistics -- A Very Short Introduction*

18,361 Sullivan:  Statistics: Informed Decisions Using Data

21,049 Triola: Essentials of Statistics*

21,525 Brase and Brase: Understandable Statistics*

22,154 Kiess and Green: Statistical Concepts for Behavioral Sciences*

27,165 Nolan and Heinzen: Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences*

27,549 Moore and Notz: Concepts and Controversies

28,346 Howell: Fundamental Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences*

28,467 Woloshin, Schwartz, Welch: Know Your Chances: Health Stats*

32,359  Utts and Heckard: Mind on Statistics*

35,094  Sprinthall: Basic Statistical Analysis*

35,674  Moore: The Basic Practice of Statistics*

39,104  Witte and Witte: Statistics*

45,788  Gravetter, Wallnau and Hague: Essentials of Statistics*

57,428  Agresti & Finlay: Statistical Methods for Social Sciences*

67,602  Johnson: Statistics: Principles and Methods*

71,717  Agresti, Franklin: Statistics: Art/Science Learning from Data*

96,236  Sevilla and Somers: QR Tools for Today's Citizen 

116,609  Urdan: Statistics in Plain English*

130.091  Miller, Heeren and Hornsby: Mathematical Ideas*

149,568  McClave, Sincich and Mendenhall: Statistics*

163,858  Andersen, Swanson: Understanding our Quantitative World

229,342  Sullivan: Fundamentals of Statistics*

267,500  Bennet, Briggs, Triola: Statistical Reasoning For Everyday Life

272,723  Aufmann and Lockwood: Mathematical Thinking and QR

387,527  Rossman, Chance, Lock: Workshop Statistics*

397,508  Bennett, Briggs: Essentials of Using and Understanding Math*

837,830  Rossman, Chance: Investigating Statistical Concepts ...*

855,570  Richman et al: Mathematics for Liberal Arts

883,473  Sons: Mathematical Thinking & Quantitative Reasoning

1,227,440  Abramson and Isom: Literacy and Mathematics

1,308,574  Fusaro, Kenschaft: Environmental Math in the Classroom*

1,342,288  Bennett, Briggs: Themes of the Times on QL*

1,595,528  Pierce, Wright, Roland: Mathematics for Life: ... QL*

2,180,080  Langkamp and Hull: QR and the Environment

3,435,423  Greenleaf: Quantitative Reasoning: Understanding Nature

3,750,127  Burkhart: Quantitative and Qualitative Reasoning Skills

* Ranks as of March, 2010

TOP STATLIT SITE-PAPERS VIEWED IN 2009

Papers with over 100 views at www.StatLit.org in 2009.

Total downloads: (184,000 in 2009; 106,000 in 2008).  Numbers in parenthesis are (2009, 2008) counts.

  1. Percentage Graphs in USA Today. Milo Schield 2006 ASA (13,253 viewings in 2009; 14,247 in 2008)  [Includes screen, print and 6up versions]

  2. Exploring Simpson's Paradox. Larry Lesser (Univ. Texas, El Paso) NCTM 2001 (2,844; 913)

  3. Presenting Confounding Graphically Using Standardization (1,985; 1,616). Milo Schield, 2006 Draft for Stats magazine

  4. Quantity Words Without Numbers: Why Students use "Many". Milo Schield 2005 Carleton (1,863; 2,090)

  5. Q/R Textbooks  PDF of StatLit Q/R textbook web-page (1,532)

  6. Interpreting the substantive significance of multivariate regression coefficients by Jane Miller 2008 ASA (1,412)

  7. The Cult of Statistical Significance by Stephen Ziliak and Deirdre McCloskey  *2009* ASA 6up 4up (999)

  8. Frequency of Simpson's Paradox in NAEP Data. Jim Terwilliger & Milo Schield, 2004 AERA (1,070; 678)

  9. Univ. Texas San Antonio: Quantitative Scholarship - Final Draft    Press Release *2009* (1,174) [# includes paper and press release]

  10. Some Difficulties Learning Histograms. Carl Lee & Maria Meletiou-Mavrotheris ASA 2003 (991; 1,179)

  11. Just Plain Data Analysis: Common Statistical Fallacies.... Gary Klass (Illinois State University) 2008 ASA (991; 499)

  12. Statistical Literacy: An Online Course at Capella University. Marc Isaacson (Augsburg College) 2005 ASA (902; 1,202)

  13. Quantitative Reasoning: An Activity-Based Course, Sommers 2007 ASA 6up slides (899; 294)

  14. People Count: The Social Construction of Statistics.  Joel Best 2002 Presented at ASA (803; 1,087)

  15. Ambiguity Intolerance: An Impediment to Inferential Reasoning?  Robert Carver 2006 ASA (797)

  16. Statistics for Political Science Majors. Gary Klass 2004 ASA (765; 215)

  17. Online Program Decoding English Descriptions and Comparisons of Percentages & Rates. Burnham & Schield 2005 ASA (782; 1,070)

  18. What do M&M's, Dahlias, Soil Erosion and Data Analysis ... Have in Common? Jerry Moreno, 2006 ASA (817; 158)

  19. Accuracy and Apparent Accuracy in Medical Testing by Stuart Boersma and Teri Willlard 6up slides *2009* NNN (781)

  20. Numeracy: Assessing Basic Skills and Knowledge by Milo Schield *2009* MAA JMM  6up (514)

  21. Programme: European Conference on Methodology  2008 Spain (708)

  22. Statistical Literacy & Mathematical Thinking. Milo Schield 2000 ICME (681; 997)

  23. Focus on Basic 2008 9A: World Education (539). Using Part-Whole Thinking in Math by Dorothea Steinke;  Numeracy Matters by Myrna Manly;  Designing Instruction with the Components of Numeracy in Mind by Lynda Ginsburg; Changing Practice, Expanding Minds by Kate Nonesuch; Is Math Universal? Interview of Joanne Kantner by FOB; Numeracy at the Downtown Learning Center by Avril DeJesus; The Importance of Algebra for Everyone by Tricia Donovan; TIAN: A Professional Learning Model for ABE Math Teachers by Beth Bingman & Mary Jane Schmitt; Arizona's Professional Learning Journey through the Teachers Investigating Adult Numeracy Project by Beverly Wilson & D. Roberto Morales; News from World Education.

  24. Pedagogical Challenges of Quantitative Literacy. Bernie Madison, President of NNN,  2006 ASA (476; 468)

  25. The Components of Numeracy. Ginsburg, Manly & Schmitt 2006 NCSALL (466; 235)

  1. Spinning Heads and Spinning News: Statistics in the Media by Rebecca Goldin George Mason U.  *2009* ASA 6up (459)

  2. Social Mathematics in US Civics Curriculum. James Mauch dissertation 2005 (442; 470)

  3. Numbers in the News: A Survey. Milo & Cynthia Schield, 2007 ASA (423; 1,277)

  4. Statistical Significance of Ranking Paradoxes by Anna Bargigliotti and Jim Greenwell *2009* MAA JMM  (410; 147)

  5. Statistical Literacy Skills Survey by Milo Schield, 2008 PKAL-Carleton. 6up slides.(392)

  6. Why Should We Even Teach Statistics? A Bayesian Perspective. Gudmund Iversen, 2000 Tokyo Round Table (370; 790)

  7. Distinguishing Association from Causation in Media Headlines by Milo Schield and Robert Raymond  *2009* ASA.   6up (362)

  8. Confound Those Speculative Statistics Milo Schield  *2009* ASA 6up (361)

  9. Teaching the Social Construction of Statistics by Milo Schield, 2007 Midwest Sociological Society (340; 754)

  10. Statistical Challenges in Medical Research: What Consumers Need to Know, Ronald R. Gauch (Marist College) *2009* ASA 6up (334)

  11. Statistical Literacy Curriculum Design by Milo Schield 2004 IASE Curriculum Roundtable, Lund Sweden (331)

  12. Mathematics and Democracy: A Course in Quantitative and Political Literacy by Kira Hamman, *2009* JMM 6up slides (323)

  13. Three Paradoxes. Howard Wainer and Lisa Brown, Nat. Board of Med. Examiners. Draft for American Statistician 2004 (315; 750)

  14. Bracey Principles by Gerald Bracey 2006 (312)

  15. People Count: The Social Construction of Statistics  2002 Talk at Augsburg College (310)

  16. Sencer 2009 Statistics Symposium Program.  Metropolitan State U.[282]

  17. Statistical Prevarication: Telling Half Truths Using Statistics. Schield, 2005 IASE (256; 898)

  18. 10 Questions to Ask for Q/R, Neil Lutsky (Carleton), 2006 ASA (210; 437)

  19. Teaching Causal Inference in Experiments and Observational Studies by Donald Rubin, 1999 ASA (209)

  20. Statistical Literacy: An Evangelical Calling for Statistical Educators. Milo Schield, 2005 ISI (192; 304)

  21. Trashball: A logistic Regression Activity, Morrell & Auer 2004 ASA (191)

  22. Poster: Using Media Articles to Drive a Quantitative Literacy Course by Madison, Boersma, Deifenderfer and Dingman. *2009* MAA  6up slides  (681)

  23. Analyzing Numbers in the News: A Structured Approach. Milo Schield 2008 NNN (171; 169)

  24. The Final Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008 US Dept of Education (166)

  25. Mathematics Across the Curriculum: Inspiration & Resources (and Opportunities), Rebecca Hartzler 2008 “MAC & QR - Multiple Collegiate Models” Borough of Manhattan Community College 6up (157; 142)

  26. Connections between Experimental and non-experimental designs by Elizabeth Stuart  *2009* ASA 1up  (150)

  27. Achieving Statistical Literacy in Elementary School Using Current Popular Curricula by Anna E. Bargagliotti  MAA *2009* 6up (140)

  28. Making QR Central to Pre-Calculus Course by Cinnamon Hillyard and Nicole Hoover MAA *2009* 6up (136)

  29. News Math Course Description and Procedures Bernie Madison, 2005 Univ. Arkansas (104; 214)

12/2009: The StatLit website hosted 533 pdfs of papers and 153 pdfs of slide handouts.

TOP STAT-LIT SITE-PAGES VIEWED IN 2009

Top StatLit Pages Viewed at www.StatLit.org in 2009
(###; ###): page views in 2009; 2008.
  1. Welcome (15,729; 10,423):  Home/Index page. Site overview.

  2. Joel Best (3,481; 3,118): Author of "More Damned Lies & Statistics"

  3. StatLit Papers (2,837; 2,444): Papers, articles or presentations.

  4. Gerald Bracey (2,669; 2,035): Author of "Reading Educational Research"

  5. StatLit News 2008 (2,634):  Stat-Lit News from 2008.

  6. Q/L Textbooks (2,484; 2,387): Details on Q/R or Q/L textbooks.

  7. Adult Numeracy (2,467; 1,987): News on adult numeracy projects.

  8. Standardizing (2,434; 1,718): Excel graph illustrates standardizing.

  9. Howard Wainer (2,127; 1,966):  Author of "A Tout in the Milk".

  10. John Paulos (1,845; 1,669):  Author of "Numeracy".

  11. StatLit News 2007 (1,498; 1,928):  Stat-Lit News from 2007.

  12. Q/L Books (1,418; 1,459):  Q/L-related books (not texts).

  13. Gerd Gigerenzer (1,415; 1,503):  Author of "Calculated Risks"

  14. StatLit News 2006 (1,386; 1,523):  Stat-Lit News from 2006.

  15. 2002 W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy Survey Web version (1,452)

  16. StatLit Books (1,346; 1,680): Over 300 Stat-Lit related books.

  17. Q/L Activities (1,278; 1,378): Details on Q/L-related activities.

  18. Dennis Haack (1,199; 1,276): Author of "Statistical Literacy" 1979

  19. StatLit News 2004 (1,191; 1,183: Stat-Lit News from 2004.

Note: Website statistics are tabulated by the DeepMatrix program LiveStats® .XSP V8.03. Each month, the views for the top 25 website pages are tabulated.  Those pages that aren't in the top 25 that month are treated as having zero views.  Thus the annual totals for the most popular pages (e.g., Home page) are quite accurate, whereas those with the lowest ranks are understated.

 

Pages with less than 12 months statistics* have been adjusted: multiplied by 12 over the number of months tabulated.  Pages with less than 8 months of statistics are omitted (except for those that are student assigned during just certain months during the year).

 

In 2009, the StatLit web site consisted of 36 pages in the main directory (including the 5 navigation pages) plus the student-assigned pages (/GC) and the Keck Statistical Literacy survey.

 

Navigation page views totaled 9,522 (8,474): Statistical Literacy 2,396 (2,100), StatLit News 1,928* (1,863), Authors 2,033* (1,860),  Statistical Reasoning 1,625 (1,425) and Numeracy 1,540 (1,226).

Student-assigned (involuntary) pages views [all through /GC] totaled 3,907 (5,548). These included the grammar-checker programs (SLRSV.aspx; four versions) with 1,988 (3,374) views and the Part-Whole program (PartWholeImages.aspx) with 1,919 (2,169) views.  

TOP 10 SITE SEARCH-TERMS

Top 13 terms in search referrals to www.StatLit.org.
Search referrals (2009; 08; 07)
.  References shown are likely targets. 
  1. Joel Best (835; 1,147; 594): See Joel Best author page. [Could be Billie Joel]

  2. graphs (567; 654; 634): Schield Percentage Graphs in USA Today

  3. Howard Wainer (424;340; 110): See Howard Wainer author page.

  4. Statistical Literacy (341; 385; 249): See Statistical Literacy.

  5. Quantity words (317; 547; 264): See Schield, Why Students Use 'Many'?

  6. Standardiz... (240; 100; 131):  Schield, Adjusting for Confounding Graphically.

  7. Numeracy and Math across curriculum (197; 75; 60): See Numeracy

  8. Significance, substantial and statistical (168)

  1. Gerald Bracey (162; 214; 94): See Gerald Bracey author page.

  2. Data (80)

  3. Simpson Paradox (45; 59; 54): Schield, "Adjust for Confounding Graphically".

  4. Social construction and ambiguity (38): See Schield, Teaching the Social Construction of Statistics

  5. quantitative reasoning (22; 33):  See Numeracy or Q/L

Each month, LiveStats ranks the search terms used and captures the top 20 with the associated number of referrals.  In 2009, this generated 92 unique search terms with 3,707 visits (plus 17,403 Other) for a total of 21,110 total search referrals. These 92 search terms were grouped by search phrase  (so 'standardizing' and 'standardized' were counted together) into 30 groups.   Note that these numbers are very sensitive to how search terms are grouped into search phrases.  Note that most of the search referrals are tabulated under Other.

GOOGLE SITE RANKINGS

Google rated www.StatLit.org as the #1 site for Statistical Literacy for the 5th year. Google ranking (12/09) of www.StatLit.org.

When multiple words are shown, they are searched as a phrase.

#1:  Statistical literacy (1,1), Joel Best, Howard Wainer, Bernie Madison, statistical prevarication, chance grammar, spurious association, statistical doublespeak, percentage graphs, data literacy

#2:  Dennis Haack, percentage grammar, statistical paradoxes

#3:  USA Today graphs, interpreting doublespeak, standardizing, multivariate thinking, journalistic significance, adult numeracy

Top 10: John Paulos (), Milo Schield (), Gerald Bracey (), statistical illiteracy (), quantity words ()

Top 30: statistically literate (14), innumeracy (15), numeracy (40), confounder ()

Top 100: Gigerenzer (), statistically illiterate (), social construction (), Lynn Steen (), confounding (), Simpson's paradox (74), statistics (), statistical reasoning (61), quantitative literacy (64)

This site was not in the first 100 for chance, confound, confounded, critical thinking, financial literacy, health literacy, health numeracy, induction, quantitative reasoning, spurious, standardization or statistical education.

Process: Search on phrase (in quotes); Find "StatLit.org" on page.

2009 IASE: Durban

This site was last updated 06/18/16 To do: fix Excel Standardization pages