Instead of reserving the study of probability and statistics for special fourth-year high school courses, the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) takes a “statistics for all” approach. The standards recommend that students in grades 6–8 learn to summarize and describe data distributions, understand probability, draw random samples, make inferences, and describe associations. In response to the growing needs of the nation in the area of data literacy (e.g., Franklin et al. 2007; U.S. Department of Labor 2014), changes to the mathematics education landscape require that students be given the opportunity to use statistics to create mathematical meaning from data. This article addresses this challenge by presenting a “vehicle” to meet many of the Common Core’s expectations.
This article is available to members of NCTM who subscribe to
Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School. Don't miss out—join now or upgrade your membership. You may also purchase this article now for online access.
Log In/Create Account
Purchase Article