S03: How to place students between two (or more) levels of introductory stats courses


Mark Mills


Information

What are the best criteria for deciding whether a student is better served by (1) a faster-paced, "advanced" introductory stats course that assumes decent "mental maturity" and math skills or (2) a slower-paced, "basic" algebra-based introductory stats course? Typical math placement processes don't seem to be as effective with this as might be expected, due to the role that "mental maturity" may play in successfully learning stats. For institutions having two (or more) levels of introductory stats, what (if anything) have you tried and how has it worked? Is there some obvious way of doing this placement?