This teaching supplement from the U.S. Census Bureau is designed for educators in grades 5 through 12. The Bureau offers it as a way of addressing the needs and concerns of teachers as they attempt to include statistical information about the everyday world in an effort to meet new educational standards. The supplement is presented in order to…

Asserts that traditional approaches to multivariate analysis, including standard linear regression techniques, ignore the special character of count data. Explicates three suitable alternatives to standard regression techniques, a simple Poisson regression, a modified Poisson regression, and a negative binomial model. (MJP)