Did you know the American Statistical Association and National Council of Teachers of Mathematics jointly sponsor a committee to help promote the importance of statistics education at the K–12 level?
The committee is comprised of four appointed members from the ASA and four from NCTM. In addition, the committee includes staff and board liaisons from both NCTM and the ASA.
Here is the committee charge:
The ASA-NCTM Joint Committee has a three-level charge centered around policy, teaching, and learning. The committee is charged to:
- Provide national and state-level leadership and advocacy to promote the connection between statistics and mathematics in K-12 education
- Promote statistical and mathematical proficiency, appropriate pedagogy, and high-quality practice among current teachers, future teachers, teacher educators, and teacher leaders
- Support the development of appropriate statistical and mathematical materials, assessments, programs, and curricula
The committee helps support and oversee a number of items related to statistics education. First, the committee gives guidance on this publication—Statistics Teacher. The committee has been involved as this publication has evolved (since the 1980s) into its current form.
Also important are the Statistics Education Web lesson plans that can be found linked from the Statistics Teacher website. The committee is responsible for recruiting editors for these publications and providing suggestions for improvement and changes.
The committee has traditionally been involved in discussions regarding the production of the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) and Statistical Education of Teachers (SET). Past and current committee members served as authors or reviewers. The committee also authored the joint position statement on preparing pre-K–12 teachers of statistics.
In addition, the committee supports the ASA Statistics Projects Competition and ASA Data Visualization Poster Competition. These are opportunities for students to investigate statistical questions.
The committee is also responsible for working with and supporting statistical education specialists who lead the Beyond AP Statistics Workshop (BAPS) and Stats&DataNet (previously Meeting Within a Meeting (MWM) Statistics Workshop for Mathematics and Science Teachers). These are professional development opportunities for teachers interested in teaching statistics or incorporating it into their teaching.
The committee meets formally approximately twice per year to discuss and work on items related to our statistical community—always with an eye to promoting good statistics education teaching. The committee regularly meets with nonprofit organizations related to statistics, data science, probability, and data. In addition, subcommittees meet other times of the year as needed. Current initiatives include the translation of GAISE II; promotion of equity in statistical education; connection of artificial intelligence, statistics, and the use of data; and promoting a statistics education track at the NCTM annual meeting.
Learn more about these and other projects supported by the committee.