Data rules schools and ignorance is far from bliss. From assessment results to questioning educational claims, there is a growing need to understand the numbers used in education. Education data blogger and teacher Richard Selfridge (aka Jack Marwood) unravels the complexities of dealing with educational data and explains statistics in an…

Statistical data is used in the media and on online platforms, often with an interpretation that serves some commercial or political purpose. Primary preservice teachers must be able to understand statistical data and analyze it critically. Only in this way will they be able to contribute as future teachers to the development of a critical spirit…

A classroom activity is presented, which can be used in teaching students statistics with an easily generated, large, real world data set. The activity consists of analyzing a video recording of an object. The colour data of the recorded object can then be used as a data set to explore variation in the data using graphs including histograms,…

The learning sequence described in this article was developed to provide students with a demonstration of the development of box plots from authentic data as an illustration of the advantages gained from using multiple forms of data representation. The sequence follows an authentic process that starts with a problem to which data representations…

The State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) report is produced annually by the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) to broaden understanding of the context and consequences of multiple decisions made every year in each of these areas. No single report can provide definitive answers to such broad and fundamental questions of public…

This report briefly describes and analyzes several of the most frequently used techniques for depicting trends and making projections of education statistics. Each technique is described simply and nontechnically, with its uses and shortcomings, and a step-by-step analytical and graphic example and explanation. Projection techniques described…

A sample of 134 sixth-grade students who were using the Connected Mathematics curriculum were administered an open-ended item entitled, Vet Club (Balanced Assessment, 2000). This paper explores the role of misconceptions and naive conceptions in the acquisition of statistical thinking for middle grades students. Students exhibited misconceptions…

This study was conducted to analyze and summarize raw data obtained from a 1972 study: "Report on a Cost Study of Specific Technical Processing Activities of the California State University and College Libraries" with the hypothesis that the cost of technical processes increases as the production volume both rises above and falls below…

The statistical methods presented in this workbook focus on the display of central tendency, statistical tests, and correlation. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 consist of worksheets, each of which provides step-by-step instructions for calculating and interpreting a particular statistical method. The introduction to each worksheet explains how and when to…

This module, one of 25 on vocational education training for careers in environmental health occupations, contains self-instructional materials on preparing data for analysis. Following guidelines for students and instructors and an introduction that explains what the student will learn are three lessons: (1) constructing a table by organizing data…

The major purpose of this report is to examine what the operating aid formula for the 1977-78 New York State school year could have been for the 347 save-harmless districts and the 236 limited aid districts if the 1977 legislature had not based apportionments on the previous year's aid. The study, conducted by a governor-appointed task force,…

Statistical data can be represented in a number of qualitatively different ways, the choice depending on the following three conditions: the concepts to be investigated; the nature of the data; and the purpose for which they were collected. This paper begins by setting out frameworks that describe the nature of statistical thinking in schools, and…

This is a tongue-in-cheek rendering of an imaginary linguist's attempt to prove that a grammatical rule is not in fact optional, but conditioned. Through manipulation of the data, use of computers, etc., he succeeds in "proving" this. He also "proves" that this conditioning is contextual; that the rule which exhibits it is…

A College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB)-sponsored survey presents data derived from the questionnaire responses of a representative sample of 1,814 secondary school seniors who took the CEEB Latin Achievement Test during the 1965-66 academic year. Written analyses of questionnaire data, along with many supporting graphs and charts, offer…

The purpose of this report by a panel of school finance specialists appointed by the governor to guide a budget study in New York State is to summarize studies on the existing apportionment system of public school aid and to suggest short-term steps for improving the equity of the present system. Parts 1 and 2 discuss the present operating aid…