The inclusion of statistics and probability in the mathematics curriculum in secondary schools in the United States is now regarded as a necessity. While imparting these skills to all our high school graduates implies an increased level of mathematical training in general, it implies in particular that statistics and probability become part of the normal high school curriculum, probably, although not limited to, the mathematics curriculum. Teachers, by and large, have either had no statistics courses, or those they have had have been regarded as obstacles in their programmes. It is curiously easy to find teachers (as well as other college graduates) who look back on a statistics course as containing totally incomprehensible material punctuated by impressive and less than meaningful formulas in large numbers. Those of us who dare admit to teaching statistics for some time bear the burden of not having explained ourselves. We have failed to tell our students what our subject is about and we have also failed, I think, to impart the vitality and wide range of applications of statistics. Hence teachers, for whom the subject matter may be new, must be educated in the correct way or we may be doomed to repeat our less than admirable past.
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