This popular publication provides easy-to-understand explanations of statistics concepts and uses examples from the current educational environment to demonstrate those concepts. Understanding, even being comfortable with using statistics is essential for today’s K-12 educators. And using data to improve student achievement is critical to tackling the challenges of NCLB.
That’s why this report on interpreting and using education statistics-written by well-known education author Dr. Gerald Bracey-couldn’t be more timely or more relevant. This is not your typical college textbook on statistics. Rather, it is written for educators and will help you and your staff become better at routinely using statistics in your school improvement efforts. In it, Bracey provides concise explanations of statistical terms along with examples of how statistics can be, and often are, misused. Understanding and Using Education Statistics helps both novice and experienced practitioners alike become better consumers of statistics, better interpreters of data, and ultimately, better decision makers.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: Why Do I Need Statistics?
- The Two Types of Statistics: Descriptive and Inferential
- Measures of Central Tendency: Mean, Median, and Mode
- Measures of Dispersion
- Correlation and Its Discontents
- Statistical Significance and Tests of Statistical Significance
- Standard Errors
- Analysis of Variance
- Nonparametric Statistics
- Ranks Versus Performance
- Rates Versus Numbers
- Reading Through Statistical Prose