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W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy Project

Milo Schield, Project Director

Project Goal:

To Develop Statistical Literacy

as an Interdisciplinary Curriculum in the Liberal Arts

Statistical Literacy is the study of statistics as evidence in everyday arguments.

See www.StatLit.org for an overview on statistical literacy worldwide.  

Spring 2006. 

• Milo Schield: Presenting Confounding and Standardization Graphically for STATS magazine.

• Milo Schield: Statistical Literacy Survey Analysis for ICOTS.

• Milo Schield: Statistical Literacy Survey Results for IASSIST.

Fall, 2005. 

• Marc Isaacson: "Statistical Literacy: An On-Line Course at Capella University" at 2005 ASA JSM. 

• Tom Burnham & Milo Schield on "Statistical Literacy: An On-Line Course at Capella University" at 2005 ASA JSM. 

• Milo Schield on Why Students Use "Many" presented at ACM Quantitative Literacy conference at Carleton College.

• Chris Olsen on "Epidemiology as a Context for Teaching Confounding in Elementary Statistics" at 2005 ASA JSM. 

• Jane Miller on "What can 'CSI' Teach Us about Statistical Literacy" at 2005 ASA JSM. 

• Lewis Cope on "Toys, Tales and a Journalist's View of Statistics" at 2005 ASA JSM. 

Spring, 2005. 

• Milo Schield gives keynote talk, Core Concepts in Quantitative Literacy, at MAA QL conference at Macalister.  Notes,  6up slides  and 1up slides.

• Joel Best talks on "Statistical Literacy: What is the Problem?" on March 30 at Augsburg College.

• Milo Schield gives talks in Australia at IASE and ISI conferences on statistical literacy in April.

• Statistical Prevarication: Telling Half-Truths Using Statistics.  Talk at IASE conference

• Statistical Literacy: An Evangelical Calling for Statistical Educators.  Invited talk at ISI conference

• Information Literacy, Statistical Literacy and Data Literacy.  Invited for publication in IASSIST Quarterly

• Capella University to offer MAT2050: Statistical Literacy.

     MAT 2050 is a general education course listed under Mathematics and Logical Reasoning.

     This is a 3 credit half-semester on-line course using Augsburg course materials

     Students need a quantitative course that has a critical thinking focus.

Fall 2004:

• W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy Project invited to prepare a paper for publication in Peer Review.

     AACU Peer Review dedicates summer 2004 issue to Quantitative Literacy.

     Statistical Literacy and Liberal Education at Augsburg by Milo Schield is included.

     Thesis: Context is central to statistical literacy and to a liberal education.

• W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy project named  "the leading voice" of the emerging statistical literacy movement

    in Joel Best's new book, "More Damned Lies and Statistics".

Summer, 2004 (Publications and Talks)

• Three Graphs to Promote Statistical Literacy  ICME 10 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

     Use of graphs to teach confounding, statistical significance and their relation.

• Frequency of Simpson's Paradox in NAEP Data  AERA in San Francisco, California

      Finds that Simpson's Paradox reversals are fairly common in NAEP data.

• Statistical Literacy Curriculum Design  IASE 2004 Roundtable in Lund, Sweden.

     Statistical literacy for majors that do not require statistics or mathematics.

2001-2003

• 2003:    Statistical Literacy, Numeracy and the Future 

                Talk by Peter Holmes at Augsburg College in spring, 2003.

• 2002:    People Count: the Social Construction of Statistics 

                Talk by Professor Joel Best at Augsburg College in fall, 2002.

• 2001:    W. M Keck Foundation Funds Augsburg Statistical Literacy Project 

                Project Brochure (PDF)

Technical Papers:

• 2005:    Statistical Literacy and Chance, Schield, 2005 ASA JSM.  Notes,  6up slides  and 1up slides.

• 2005:    On-Line Grammar-Parsing Program that Decodes Ordinary English Descriptions and Comparisons of Percentages and Rates

                Burnham and Schield, 2005 ASA Section on Statistical Education  Notes,  6up slides  and 1up slides.

• 2004:    Confounder Resistance and Confounder Intervals for a Binary Confounder

                Schield and Burnham, 2004 ASA Section on Statistical Education

• 2003:    Confounder-Induced Spuriosity and Reversal: Algebraic Conditions for a Binary Confounder

                Schield and Burnham, 2003 ASA Section on Statistical Education

• 2002:    Algebraic Relations between Relative Risk, Phi and Measures of Necessity and Sufficiency in 2x2 Tables

                Schield, 2002 ASA Section on Statistical Education

PROJECT GOALS

Goal:  To generate Statistical Literacy teaching materials that are "useful to students and usable by faculty."

Audience: 40% of college students are in majors that don't require a course involving math or statistics.

Outcome:  Students should be able to evaluate the strength of evidence provided by a statistic for a disputable claim or questionable action in a news story or essay.

2001:  W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy Project Announcement at Augsburg College

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