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Statistical Literacy Textbook

by Milo Schield

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Introducing Confounder-Based Statistical Literacy

StatLit Book Front Milo Schield StatLit Book Back

Textbook 2023 Edition

Textbook Highlights (slides):  Video  PDF  PPTX
Textbook Design (slides):  Video  PDF
Table of Context and Outcomes by Chapter
Glossary and Index
Word Frequency

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Chapter Slides and Videos

Table of Contents
StatLit1 Slides (PDF): Ch1 Ch2, Ch3, Ch4, Ch5, Ch6, Ch7, Ch8
StatLit1 Slides (PPTX): Ch1 Ch2, Ch3, Ch4, Ch5, Ch6, Ch7, Ch8
StatLit12 Slide Videos: Ch1A, Ch1B, Ch2A, Ch2B, Ch3A, Ch3B, Ch4A, Ch4B, Ch5, Ch6A, Ch6B, Ch7A, Ch7B, Ch8

STATISTICAL LITERACY

This is the text being used as the Statistical Literacy textbook for Math1300 at the University of New Mexico. This text was developed as a key part of the W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy Project.

In 2005, Capella University began offering Statistical Literacy on-line using this textbook. Dr. Valerie Perkins, Dean of Capella's School of Under-graduate Studies, notes, “Schield's approach to statistical literacy helps Capella students think critically while satisfying Capella's general education requirement in mathematical and logical reasoning.”

Peter Holmes, Royal Statistical Society Centre for Statistical Education, said, “I am convinced that the standard first course in statistics, which focuses on getting to significance testing and confidence intervals, isn't an appropriate aim for a lot of students. I think Milo's approach to statistical literacy is much closer to what is needed by journalists, by policymakers, by those in business commerce or management and by most people in everyday life.”

Statistical Literacy is closely related to numeracy, quantitative literacy/reasoning and statistical thinking/reasoning. They all focus on concepts or techniques involving numbers in context—typically numbers presented in the daily news.

But there are differences. Quantitative literacy/reasoning typically focuses on math topics such as rates and rates of change, percent of, graphs of change (first and second derivatives), linear and exponential rates of growth, accumulation (integral), installment loans, savings and weighted averages, indexes and condensed measures, estimation, plane geometry, graphical production and representation and probability (single and conditional). Statistical thinking/reasoning typically focuses on statistics involving distributions and variation—specifically random variation such as that encountered in random selection or random assignment. Both quantitative reasoning and statistical thinking focus primarily on math problems, math techniques and math concepts.

Statistical Literacy is quite different. Statistical Literacy studies statistics used as evidence in everyday arguments. As such this text may be closer to critical thinking or rhetoric than to mathematics or statistics. This text uses the admonition, “Take CARE!” as a reminder that statistics are human constructs. Statistical literacy studies those factors that influence the size and direction of a statistic. Each of the four letters in CARE stand for a kind of influence on the size of a statistic: Context (comparisons, ratios, study design and confounding), Assembly (how statistics are defined and presented), Randomness (chance, margin of error and statistical significance) and Error or bias. The bulk of the book is spent on the first two types of influence.

The goal of the text is to help readers evaluate the strengths and weaknesses in statistics that are used as evidence in everyday arguments. These statistics include government-generated statistics: country-wide statistics (c.f., US Statistical Abstract), education statistics (c.f., National Assessment of Educational Progress) and health statistics (c.f., Center for Disease Control).

This text is quite different. Instead of algebra, it uses ordinary English to describe and compare counts, measures and conditional probabilities. It focuses on reading and interpreting statistics presented in tables and graphs. It presents a new graphical technique to show how a factor is “taken in account” or “controlled for.” It requires “hypothetical thinking” for students to imagine how things might have been defined, measured, compared or presented differently. It requires hypothetical thinking for students to imagine plausible confounders for observed associations.

2016: Augsburg Student Evaluations of STAT 102 by Milo Schield ASA/JSM  Course Comparison: STAT 102 vs STAT 101

Schield's Statistical Literacy 2021B (Eighth Edition)

  • Major changes in the 2021 versions compared to the earlier 2011 versions.
  • Fifth edition is almost the same as fourth edition with error corrections and better handling of longitudinal studies.
  • Outcomes using Take CARE methodology (34 KB)
  • Detailed Tables of Contents for all Chapters: (120 KB)

CONTENTS  For chapter overview, download both audio and 6up overview. Play audio while watching the overview.

Statistical Literacy Textbooks (2003-2200):
Internal Statistics

BOOK BACKGROUND:

Order Status:

  • The first editions are limited distribution editions used primarily for teaching while developing the associated assignments and quizzes.
  • The 5th edition (2011) and later are updated to go with the more than 1,000 Moodle exercises that are available to teachers that use this book.

Statistical Literacy at Augsburg College: GST 200

Over a Hundred Topics (Over a Thousand Problems):

As Lynn Steen noted, “concept” QL courses tend to be light on exercises. Over 130 homework topics involving right-wrong exercises have been identified for this book. More than a hundred of these topics have been implemented in Moodle as multiple choice quizzes with over a thousand problems. Having right-wrong exercises online gives students immediate feedback, eliminates the need for instructor grading, minimizes the class time needed to review these topics, and allows the instructor to see which kinds of exercises are giving the students the most difficulty. Here is a current list of the class-room tested, Moodle-based, right-wrong exercises.

Web-based Part-Whole Drill Programs:

  • Videos describing: (1) the part-whole reading program,  (2) the part-whole writing program.
  • The part-whole reading drill program has 186 problems. 131 descriptions, 43 common-part comparisons and 12 distinct part comparisons.
  • The writing drill program currently has 301 problems: 6 chance-related, 266 tables, 14 bar graphs and 15 pie charts.
  • The most recent upgrade was to add chance/probability grammar to both programs.

Odysseys2Sense: a game of lively discourse

  • Odysseys (a unique web forum) is used to facilitate critical thinking. See this under Statistical Literacy tools. Fall 2012 Challenges
  • Student survey: Spring 2013  Fall 2013. Advice to reviewers:  References Huemer

BACK COVER:

Dr. Milo Schield is Director of the W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy Project and a professor in Business Administration at Augsburg College. He received his Ph.D. from Rice University.

In 2001, the W. M. Keck Foundation awarded Augsburg College a grant to develop statistical literacy “as an interdisciplinary curriculum in the liberal arts.” In 2004, the AACU's Peer Review magazine featured Milo's essay, Statistical Literacy and Liberal education at Augsburg College.

“A small educational movement advocating statistical literacy has emerged. Professor Milo Schield, Director of the W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy Project, at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, is the movement's leading voice.” Dr. Joel Best, author of More Damned Lies and Statistics.

Statistical Literacy Textbook (2016)

Textbook design: