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Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
Volume 10, Number 2 (Fall 2004)

It has been an honor and a delight to serve as your chair of the Statistical Education Section this year. We've accomplished many things in the past 12 months. While I shall not list them (because they have been amply chronicled in this fine newsletter), I do want to thank the members of the Statistical Education Section Executive Committee for their hard work and outstanding leadership. What a tremendous group!

Having been a member of this section for a very long time (I'd rather not mention HOW long), I've had the privilege of observing and learning from many great statistics educators. I find it particularly exciting now to see how many new faces are emerging on the scene, showing remarkable insight into how students learn and how we need to teach. And the "not-so-new" folks continue to add depth to our understanding of statistics education. My classes benefit every year from the things I learn from you all, and I benefit personally as well, because your ideas help make the classroom more interesting to me as well.

I have so enjoyed the opportunity to be your section chair, and to experience first hand your dedication to our profession, your commitment to students, and your own love of learning. Thank you for this privilege, and I look forward to working with you in other capacities in the years to come.

Best wishes,
Ron

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Brian Jersky
Sonoma State University
Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3613
(707) 664-2361
Fax: (707) 664-3535
brian.jersky@sonoma.edu

Joan Garfield
Department of Educational Psychology
University of Minnesota
332 Burton Hall
128 Pillsbury Dr., S.E.
Minneapolis MN 55455
(612) 625-0337
Fax: (612) 624-8241
jbg@umn.edu

E. Jacquelin Dietz
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Meredith College
3800 Hillsborough Street
Raleigh, NC 27607-5298
(919) 760-8234
Fax: (919) 760-8141
dietzjac@meredith.edu

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May 19, 2005 - May 21, 2005
United States Conference on Teaching Statistics (USCOTS)
"Building Connections for Undergraduate Statistics Teaching"
http://www.causeweb.org/uscots/

July 2, 2006 - July 7, 2006
7th International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS)
Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
"Working cooperatively in statistics education"
http://www.maths.otago.ac.nz/icots7

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Other ideas in the first set include the following: to form local / regional consortia of those who teach (at any level), to find a way to share ideas for student research projects, to link the Stat Ed and TSHS websites, and to either schedule the Stat Ed and TSHS mixers in adjacent rooms or schedule a joint Stat Ed / TSHS mixer. This latter idea could involve having separate concurrent business meetings with a common mixer, or having the meetings and mixers jointly. Robin Lock (Stat Ed Chair-Elect) has already started an initiative regarding the sharing of ideas for student research projects; for details, refer to the web page (http://it.stlawu.edu/~rlock/ussa).

The second set of ideas is primarily for the section program chair-elects (Karen McGaughey for Stat Ed and Patrick Arbogast for TSHS) and the program chair-elect-elects (Janet Tooze for TSHS and Paul Roback for Stat Ed) to consider. These ideas include the following: to organize joint Stat Ed / TSHS roundtable luncheons, to organize a joint session on issues that apply to our respective teaching audiences (undergraduate, graduate, medical, etc.), to organize a joint topic contributed panel session regarding the statistical education of pre-professional students (pre-med, pre-dental, etc.), to organize a joint session on distance education, and to organize a joint session on the review of web pages containing helpful statistical educational material that are relevant to TSHS and/or Stat Ed. Intertwined with this final idea is the intention to publish a review of these web pages in The American Statistician.

After the JSM, it was noted that there is a CAUSE initiative that will provide a single place to go for web resources related to statistics education, including peer reviews of these web resources. A JSM session on Thursday morning was devoted to this initiative. Stat Ed is already fairly well plugged in to this initiative, but it may be helpful for TSHS to become involved as well. (Thanks to Robin Lock for this information.)

Thanks to Patrick Arbogast for organizing the dinner. We (the authors of this article) are excited by the opportunities that our two sections have to work together!

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Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
Volume 10, Number 2 (Fall 2004)

The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (CAUSE) launched its website, http://www.CAUSEweb.org, at JSM in an invited session sponsored by the Section on Statistics Education. CAUSE is a national organization whose mission is to support and advance undergraduate statistics education in four target areas: resources, professional development, outreach, and research.

CAUSEweb.org is funded by a digital library grant from the National Science Foundation. CAUSEweb already features a searchable annotated listing of more than 1500 reference articles in statistics education, more than 300 high quality resources for teaching statistics, more than 30 cartoons for free use by statistics instructors, a calendar of research and professional development events, and a growing collection of refereed items providing the core of the library's holdings. CAUSEweb is also the place to go to find out about the upcoming US Conference on Teaching Statistics being hosted by CAUSE May 19-21, 2005 (see www.causeweb.org/uscots).

The CAUSEweb editorial board reviews items using the criteria of the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT: www.merlot.org). This involves reviewing strengths and weaknesses in content quality, effectiveness for teaching, and ease of use. Lesson plans, learning objectives, assessment methods, and research evidence of effectiveness will provide crucial supplemental materials when available. The 20-member editorial board includes statistics educators from research universities, four-year colleges, two-year colleges, and high school AP statistics environments.

Since JSM, 15 to 20 people per week have registered log-in names at CAUSEweb.org. Registering allows you to submit items for review and user profiles will soon be used to provide tailor-made content to those who are logged in.

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Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
Volume 10, Number 2 (Fall 2004)

As a service to new faculty members in the Section on Statistical Education (EDUC) and as a potential way to increase membership, an EDUC mentoring program has been created. Members of the section who are in their first five years of teaching are now given the opportunity to have a mentor. The mentor will serve as a resource for the new faculty member with regard to academic issues (e.g., choosing a textbook, creating new courses, balancing teaching and research). Many schools already have mentoring programs in place, but an EDUC mentor can still be effective, as he/she can bring a valuable perspective from outside the specific college of the mentee (note: mentee = person being mentored).

The expectations of the mentor are fairly limited and hopefully not too time consuming: 1) Meet with his/her mentee while at JSM -- either through an official EDUC mentor/mentee event, or informally at lunch or dinner; 2) initiate contact with his/her mentee a few times during the academic year, either by phone or email; and 3) answer any questions that his/her mentee has during the course of the academic year. The official mentoring relationship will last for two years, although it can continue informally for much longer.

The program officially began this August with a successful mentor/mentee breakfast at JSM. There are currently six mentor/mentee pairings, and I am now in search of new mentees.

I would greatly appreciate your help with the mentoring program. Please contact me (via email or phone) if

• you are an EDUC member in the first five years of teaching and you want a mentor
• you know of an EDUC member who is in the first five years of teaching and may want a mentor
• you have any general suggestions for the mentoring program.

Thanks!

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Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
Volume 10, Number 2 (Fall 2004)

Last summer, 32 AP Statistics teachers participated in an intensive professional development experience as part of the INSPIRE (INsight into Statistical Practice, Instruction and Reasoning) project. Through this NSF-funded project, UCLA and Cal Poly -- San Luis Obispo, in collaboration with the American Statistical Association, work with teachers to prepare them to teach the content of the introductory statistics course. The first-year experience consisted of a weeklong summer workshop followed by a year-long online course designed specifically for secondary teachers.

Teachers who successfully completed the first year were eligible to participate in a second-year enrichment experience designed to provide participants with experience solving statistical problems under the guidance of a practicing statistician working in industry or government. In July of this year, twelve dedicated teachers returned to Cal Poly for a "Beyond AP" style weeklong workshop planned to prepare them for project work by introducing statistical methods beyond those covered in the introductory statistics course. Instructors Beth Chance, Allan Rossman, Robin Lock, and Tom Short taught sessions on statistical consulting and statistical software, and a variety of statistical methods, including analysis of variance, multiple regression, logistic regression.

At the completion of the workshop, each teacher was then matched to an ASA mentor who will guide them through the process of developing a project proposal and then as the teachers carry out the proposed project. ASA mentors include: Karla Ballman, Rob Carver, Jimmy Elfird, Paul Fields, Lisa Ganio, David Gagnon, Suzanne Hendrix, Roger Hoerl, Ghada Khoury, David Rumpf, Greg Snow, and Heidi Weiss. Judy O'Fallon and Carolyn Morgan recruited the ASA mentors for the project and will be overseeing the "practicum experience". Even though the projects that the teachers will be engaged in will generally involve statistical methods and skills that are beyond what is taught in high school statistics courses, our hope is that by experiencing the work of statistician, teachers will develop a more complete picture of the discipline and, as a consequence, become better teachers of statistics. Next year we will hopefully be able to report on the success of this endeavor!

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Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
Volume 10, Number 2 (Fall 2004)

The first United States Conference on Teaching Statistics (USCOTS) will be held on May 19-21, 2005, at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, hosted by CAUSE, the Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education.

Goals of USCOTS

• Hold a national conference that focuses on undergraduate level statistics education (including AP Statistics), targeting statistics teachers.
• Share ideas, methods, and research results regarding what teachers want to know about teaching statistics: What should I teach? How do I teach it? Where do I get good resources? And, what research can I rely on to assess whether what I'm doing is effective and appropriate?
• Facilitate teachers incorporating new ideas, methods, and resources into their existing courses and programs.
• Promote connections between all teachers of undergraduate level statistics throughout the country.

Special Features of USCOTS

• Plenary Sessions on Curriculum, Pedagogy, Resources, and Research by National Leaders in Undergraduate and AP Statistics Education:

  	George Cobb Mt. Holyoke College				Roxy Peck California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
  		Cliff Konold University of Massachusetts				Dick Scheaffer University of Florida
  			Robin Lock St. Lawrence University				Ann Watkins California State University, Northridge

• Spotlight Sessions exchanging your ideas on teaching and learning statistics
• Hands-on breakout sessions to incorporate new ideas into your courses
• Opportunities to meet other statistics teachers from a wide range of institutions and disciplines
• A Statistics Teaching Resource Packet to take with you
• A fun, active atmosphere where everyone can be involved!

USCOTS Program Committee:
Deb Rumsey (Chair); Jackie Miller (Co-chair); Richard Alldredge; Bob delMas; Mark Earley; Peter Flanagan-Hyde; Christine Franklin; Joan Garfield; Rob Gould; Bill Harkness; Brad Hartlaub; Sterling Hilton; John Holcomb; Bob Johnson; Carl Lee; Robin Lock; Marsha Lovett; Mary Parker; Dennis Pearl; Jeff Witmer

To Register for USCOTS, go to the USCOTS website: http://www.causeweb.org/uscots/

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The ARTIST Roundtable Conference on Assessment in Statistics Education

Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
Volume 10, Number 2 (Fall 2004)

Over 30 statistics instructors (from 4 different countries) participated in the ARTIST Roundtable Conference on Assessment held August 1-4 at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI.  Participants gathered to present and discuss issues related to assessing student’s outcomes in college statistics courses. The Conference was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, as part of the Assessment Resource Tools for Improving Statistical Thinking (ARTIST) Project, directed by Joan Garfield, Bob delMas, and Beth Chance. (See http://www.gen.umn.edu/artist.)

Plenary speakers included George Cobb, Peter Holmes, Michael Rodriguez, Roxy Peck, Norean Sharpe, John Holcomb, and Joy Jordan. In addition, 17 talks were given on assessment theory/designing an assessment program, classroom assessment strategies, and authentic assessment methods.  Participants also engaged in small group discussions about computerized testing software, developing exams that assess students at deeper levels, creating tasks that create cognitive dissonance, assessment in large classes, using classroom assessment techniques, group projects, scoring rubrics, and using writing as assessment.  Participants were also oriented to, and provided feedback on, the ARTIST Assessment Builder and web resources.  Papers and handouts from the conference will soon be available in a proceedings document at the ARTIST website.

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NSF Postdoctoral Fellow Position Announcement

Unique Opportunity for Recent Statistics or Biostatistics Ph.D.s for Teaching and Research

Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
Volume 10, Number 2 (Fall 2004)

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This two-year NSF-sponsored postdoctoral position will provide recent PhDs in statistics or biostatistics a unique opportunity to teach and conduct research at an undergraduate institution. Successful candidates will serve as a mentor and role model for enthusiastic undergraduates. Unlike entry-level tenure-track positions at most teaching institutions, this position offers a two-year half time teaching and half time research assignment. In addition to gaining teaching experience, the Fellow will have opportunities to mentor student researchers, work on their own research, and participate as an associate of a newly established Center for Interdisciplinary Research (CIR). The Fellow will be mentored and supported by two doctoral level statisticians and a department of experienced, dedicated professors. A variety of new hires in response to a commitment to interdisciplinary collaborations make for a stimulating, productive environment with opportunities in a variety of fields. The Fellow will be teaching 4 statistics courses each year at all levels including a capstone seminar for students concentrating in statistics during their second year. The Fellow will also benefit from annual reviews of their teaching and receive assistance in their search for a tenure-track position after their association with St. Olaf. Money to travel to appropriate meetings and workshops will be available.

APPOINTMENT:
Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, 2 year NSF post-doctoral fellow, beginning September 1, 2005.

DATE:
Review of completed applications will begin on October 1, 2004, and will continue until the position is filled.

TO APPLY:
Applicants should provide a curriculum vita, copies of undergraduate and graduate transcripts, a statement of teaching interests and philosophy and a summary of research interests and goals,.  In addition, applicants should have letters of reference sent by three persons who are well acquainted with the applicant's professional qualifications, at least one of which addresses the applicant's teaching performance and potential. Inquiries and applications should be addressed to:

Julie Legler, Sc. D.
Director, Statistics Program
Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science
1520 St.Olaf Ave.
Northfield, MN 55057
voice: (507) 646-3573
fax: (507) 646-3116
http://www.stolaf.edu/people/legler/

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The St. Olaf Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science (MSCS) is one of five departments within the Faculty of Natural Science and Mathematics.  The Department graduates approximately 60 mathematics majors and 16 statistics concentrators each year. From 1991-200, approximately 50 St. Olaf students went on to earn a PhD in mathematics or statistics, ranking first among all Undergraduate Liberal Arts (UGLA) schools, eleventh among all schools (NSF Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2001).

St. Olaf College, located approximately 35 miles south of the downtown areas of Minneapolis/St. Paul and 40 miles north of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, is a highly selective, private liberal arts college enrolling approximately 3000 students. General information about the College and its academic programs may be found at http://www.stolaf.edu.  Detailed information about the MSCS Department and the NSF Center for Interdisciplinary Research may be found at http://www.stolaf.edu/people/legler/. See the link labeled PP.

A liberal arts college affiliated with the Lutheran Church (ELCA), St. Olaf College is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and values diversity in its students, faculty and staff.  Applications by women and minorities are encouraged.

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