What is important to assess in statistics education? Usually the answer is derived from course content, i.e., teachers assess key elements of what they have taught. This talk focuses on critical statistical skills needed by adults as part of general everyday or workplace functioning. The talk is motivated by emerging plans by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for a new Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) in coming years. PIAAC will be somewhat similar in general terms to the PISA assessment program of high-school students which is now implemented in dozens of countries on a cyclical basis, but will focus on the skills of adults who are outside formal schooling, and on their economic and social participation.<br>One of the several domains assessed in PIAAC will be numeracy, and one of the strands in it will be knowledge of statistics (data and chance). We need to identify core knowledge areas expected of adults in data/chance which are valued enough to spend precious assessment time on in multiple countries, using realistic stimuli or authentic tasks which are likely to arise in the lives of many adults. The talk will present some of the design principles of the numeracy assessment in PIAAC, and solicit suggestions for possible assessment tasks. The discussion will emphasize the need for linking class assessments and real-life demands, in order to enhance learners' ability to transfer learned skills and cope effectively with functional statistical demands in the real world.
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education