In 1988 the GCSE examination was introduced in England and Wales to replace the dual system of examinations taken at age 16 years. GCE (for the most able) and CSE (for the majority). Certificates are awarded in individual subjects. Most school pupils take from six to ten subjects, nearly always including Mathematics and English. One of the many subjects on offer is Statistics which entails both written examination and course work. GCSE Statistics is normally taken as a two-year course (age 14-16) although some candidates take it the year after sitting their main GCSE examinations, as a one-year course (age 16-17). It is very much a minority subject (perhaps taken by 1% of all school candidates). Currently there are five separate examination boards for England and Wales providing five different syllabuses. However, in 1992 all five will combine to provide a single syllabus, to be first examined in 1994. A working party of the Joint Rationalisation Group for the GCSE Boards is currently devising the new syllabus. Final agreement had not yet been reached although much progress has been made.
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