Many of you may have seen last week's NYTimes piece, "
How to Fix Our Math Education." Critiquing "highly abstract curriculum" as "not the best way to prepare a vast majority of high school students for life," the authors call for "quantitative literacy" and a math curriculum "focused on real-life problems."
While the piece mentions "statistical results" and posits a data course where "students would gather their own data sets and learn how... larger samples give better estimates of averages," it stops short of using the word, "statistics," or discussing the value of statistics education and reasoning.
Fortunately, as an ASA member pointed out to me, the reader comments are not shy about stating the many benefits of statistics in our K-12 curriculum. Here are some:
- "I don't understand why statistics is not part of basic education. Complex information in many fields, not just medicine, are presented, and best understood, through statistical analysis... [A]s a physician, I really feel the lack of a good statistics background. It wasn't until late into my education that I came to realize how pervasive and vital a solid grounding in statistics were to understanding the world at large. Preparing young people for the world today without exposing them to a rudimentary understanding of statistics is akin to allowing them to graduate without being able to read or write a simple comprehensible essay."
- "I agree with everyone who has said that teaching statistics is very important. There is a lot even my 3rd graders could understand."
- "Every student ought to be taught some level of statistics and probability. It would help him or her immensely in discerning rational arguments, business propositions, planning for the future, etc."
- "This semester, I intend to teach my English composition class some basics in how statistics works so they will better understand the New York Times articles they read, and the political speeches they hear. My students need to become competent, informed citizens, but that won't happen until they understand the (sometimes bogus) statistics that impact their lives."
- "As a computer science grad who now builds financial risk management systems, I find that I use algebra and statistics daily... I was surprised when I got to MIT at just how little I knew about ... about probability and statistics! ...American high schools could easily teach junior-high and high school students ... elementary statistics - wouldn't it be great if the average newspaper reader could mentally verify basic statistical claims?"
It's all the better that many of the calls for more statistics are coming from people other than statisticians.
I write this blog entry not only to make you aware of the op-ed piece and the broad support for statistics in K-12 education but also as an opportunity to urge you to ask your U.S. Representative to cosponsor H.R. 1817, Statistics Teaching, Aptitude, and Training Act of 2011 (the STAT Act). Sign up at
http://www.amstat.org/outreach/statliteracy/, and I'll help you arrange a meeting with your Representative or her/his staff and I'll provide guidance and materials for the meeting. Such meetings are an excellent opportunity to share your enthusiasm for statistical literacy with your member of Congress and also to help them better understand what it is statisticians do.
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