Congressman Dave Loebsack of Iowa last week introduced H.R. 6355, the Statistical Teaching, Aptitude and Training Act of 2010 (STAT Act of 2010), a bill to promote K-12 statistics education through professional development of teachers, teacher training and statistics education program.
This is exciting news for ASA members as it gives us Congress’s attention on the importance of statistically literate students and the opportunity to provide teachers with the resources they need to teach statistics.
To take advantage of this opportunity, ASA launched its Statistical Literacy Grassroots Campaign this summer and is asking members and other supporters of statistics education to urge their U.S. Representative to cosponsor the STAT Act. Already 55 people have signed up to take part, with the potential to reach 50 Representatives. These committed individuals have already had some 20 meetings, many finding very receptive audiences.
If you are willing to help, please sign up at http://www.amstat.org/outreach/statliteracy and I’ll prepare you for these visits.
I would like to thank all those that have signed up for the grassroots campaign, the ASA statistics education experts who provided input on the bill, and Congressman Loebsack and his crack staff.
For more information, see:
I also invite you to join the Science Policy Group in the ASA Community: http://community.amstat.org/AMSTAT/AMSTAT/Directory/GroupDetails/Default.aspx?CommunityKey=634529e2-a7c9-4921-ac16-7fde170e677a. I will send members of this group updates on ASA Science Policy actions and also ask for input occasionally.
Did I already mention that you can be part of the ASA Statistical Literacy Grassroots Campaign by signing up at up at http://www.amstat.org/outreach/statliteracy?