Statistics education colleagues,

We currently have two introductory stats courses here at Central College.  

• Applied Statistics (MATH 215) is intended for more mathematically/technically mature/advanced students.  We use Rossman and Chance's ISCAM book, and students learn how to use Minitab to do statistical tests and intervals.
• Intro to Statistics (MATH 105) is intended for students who are not as sophisticated mathematically/technically.  We use Tintle's Introduction to Statistical Investiations book, and students use the accompanying applets to do much of the work for them.

We are struggling with finding an effective prerequisite to use to put students in these two courses. Does anyone have ideas?

The biggest difference between the two courses is how fast and how deep we can go with the material.  In Applied Stats, we go faster and make some deeper connections with the material.  We also expect that students can fill in some of the gaps as we go along.  But in Intro to Stats, we go slower and spend more time filling in gaps and making connections for the students.

We are struggling with finding an effective prerequisite to use to put students in these two courses.  In particular, we'd like to have an enforceable prerequisite for each course that would keep good students from just taking the easy road with Intro to Stats.  Does anyone have ideas? 

Currently, we simply use math placement results to decide this.  Students placing at or above Calc I or having completed (at least) Precalculus are not eligible to enroll in MATH 105.  However, as strange as this seems, our current registration system cannot check/enforce this prereq, so any student can actually enroll in either course.  So we end up having to police these criteria ourselves--usually removing students from Intro to Stats and encouraging them to enroll in Applied Stats.  (Not a happy job...)

Lately, we have begun to wonder if using a math placement result that is based on a scale from College Algebra to Multivariable Calculus is really the best way to measure what will make a student successful in a particular stats class.

We have done some analysis of a number of different possible predictors of student success, and the one that seemed to be the strongest was cumulative GPA.  A GPA of 2.7 seemed to be the low end for students who successfully completed Applied Stats.  So we proposed a pre-req of GPA <= 2.7 for Intro to Stats and GPA >= 2.7 for Applied Stats, but our Registrar doesn't like it and has asked us to consider a different pre-req.

We've talked a lot about this as a department, and we really don't know where to go.

If anyone out there with a similar situation of having two intro courses has an easy, effective, and enforceable way to determine student placement, then I would enjoy hearing from you.  Please just reply directly to me and not to the SBI mailing list.

Thanks!

Mark

Dr. MARK A. MILLS
Professor of Mathematics | Central College
812 University Street | Campus Box 06 | Pella, Iowa 50219