U of L Math Teacher Focuses on Statistics

A University of Louisville assistant professor will spend the next five years researching how middle and high school math teachers can master teaching mathematical statistics.“If you look at the USA Today there are all kinds of graphical displays of data in the newspapers and the question is do we know how to interpret that information that is presented to us," said U of L's Susan Peters.Peters received a nearly $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation and will be collaborating with the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative, which is comprised of northern-central Kentucky school districts.Statistics now have prominence in the new common core state standards, but many teachers may not have adequate training in the subject, she said.“Statistics is one of those standards that haven’t received as much attention in the K through 12 curriculum and it occupies prominent position in the state standards. So the question is how to we help teachers teach this content they’re now required to teach," said Peters.The idea is to teach students how to be statistics-literate.Two cohorts of teachers will participate in Peters’s professional development research. The final results and teaching tools will be made public through the University of Louisville.