Issues for statistical literacy in the middle school.

Focusing on the word "literacy" in the phrase "statistical literacy," the present study explored what happened to the non-numerically based aspects of statistical literacy when students in Grades 7 and 9 were exposed to a unit of work in chance and data that emphasized variation. To test the suggestion of transfer of thinking skills to the literacy side of statistical literacy, 20 items from a larger survey were selected, upon which changes in literacy skills could be measured. Ninety students in each of Grade 7 and Grade 9 were asked the questions in a longer survey before and six weeks after taking part in a unit on chance and data devised by their usual classroom mathematics teacher as part of their schools' mathematics programs.