In 2002, an international survey on reading graphs and tables of rates and percentages was conducted by the W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy Project. Respondents included US college students, college teachers worldwide and professional data analysts in the US and in South Africa. The survey focused on reading informal statistics - rates and percentages in tables and graphs. Some high error rates were encountered, but helping students learn these skills takes considerable time. A new on-line tool has been developed to help students practice using ordinary English to describe and compare rates and percentages. This tool decreased the class time necessary to teach this skill and helped make it possible to teach statistical literacy online. Statistical educators now have both the rules and the tools to teach students how to read and interpret summary data, and for teaching students to read and write comparisons of rates and percentages correctly.
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