Welcome!
The Statistics Teacher Network is a newsletter published three times a year by the American Statistical Association - National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Joint Committee on Curriculum in Statistics and Probability for Grades K-12.
We need your letter, announcements, articles, and information about what is happening in statistics education!
Derek Webb
DWebb@bemidjistate.eduA BRIEF HISTORY
In 1967, the ASA/NCTM Joint Committee on the Curriculum in Statistics and Probability for grades K-12 was created by the American Statistical Association and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
It was given four responsibilities:
- to support a newsletter, The Statistics Teacher Network, for communication with precollege teachers.
- to assist in securing funding to support curriuclum efforts for precollege programs.
- to develop strategies to promote statistics and probability in the precollege classroom.
- to provide leadership for the inclusion of statistics and probability in assessment and curriculum efforts.
The committee consists of 7 members: 3 appointed by ASA, 3 by NCTM, and one ASA staff person (Assistant Director K-16 Education Programs).
Fred Mosteller was the first chair. Under his leadership, two publications were created: a four volume series called Statistics by Example (no longer in print); and, the book ``Statistics: A Guide to the Unknown'' edited by Judith Tanur (Wadsworth 1989, 3rd ed.).
In the 1980's, along with providing input to the creation of the NCTM Curriculum Standards of 1989, the Joint Committee created the highly successful project of five volumes of hands-on probability and statistics called Quantitative Literacy. Other projects followed although not completely directed by the Joint Committee. They included Elementary Quantitative Literacy, Data Driven Mathematics, and Science Education and Quantitative Literacy. The committee also served in an advisory capacity in various facets of the creation of Advanced Placement Statistics (first examination, May 1997). The Joint Committee was directly responsible for the creation of the American Statistical Project Competition in 1987, and in the late 1990's also became responsible for the American Statistical Poster Competition that was started in 1990.
As stated above, one of the Joint Committee's initial responsibilities was to create a newsletter for precollege teachers. The first issue of the "Statistics Teacher Network'' newsletter (commonly referred to as simply "STN'') appeared in September 1982 with Ann Watkins as editor. Beth Bryan took over the reigns three years later with issue 10, followed by Jack Kinney in December 1988 with issue 19. Jerry Moreno became editor with issue 31, fall 1992, and continued through issue 62 in winter 2003. Issues 63-71 were under the leadership of Beth Lazerick. The format of STN changed from hard copy to electronic with issue 72 along with having four editors: Derek Webb, chief editor, and associate editors Larry Peterson, Rebecca Pierce, and Angie Walmsley.
STN is a free publication whose purpose is to keep grades K-12 teachers informed of statistical workshops, programs, and reviews of books, software, and calculators. In addition, articles are included that describe statistical activities that have been successful in the classroom. Contributors come from all levels of statistical expertise; the editor is responsible for collecting all appropriate information to be printed.
If you want to be informed of when future editions of STN are available, please subscribe to our new STN e-mail list by sending an e-mail message to listserv@mail.amstat.org with subscribe STN-L in the body of the message or by visiting http://mail.amstat.org/scripts/wa.exe?A0=STN-L. You will receive an e-mail confirmation upon completion. Only the list moderator will send out announcements to the list when new STN issues are available online. We will no longer be mailing paper copies of STN or postcards announcing new online STN issues.
Contact Derek Webb for further information, including volunteering to write or review articles. DWebb@bemidjistate.edu