Tuesday, Aug 6: 8:40 AM - 8:45 AM
2492
Contributed Speed
Oregon Convention Center
The American Statistical Association's Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice call for practitioners to recognize that statistical practice could adversely affect marginalized groups and to be mindful about adequately contextualizing information. In this talk, I discuss an example that engages students in analyzing data as well as reflecting on how findings from the analysis should be presented to avoid disproportionate harm. Students use data from the 2018 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam and investigate evidence of achievement gaps in standardized test scores at the school level. Working through this analysis requires students to demonstrate understanding of several topics, including hypothesis testing and interaction terms in linear regression, as well as fluency with interpreting findings in context of the data. Students then read a perspective piece published in the New England Journal of Medicine calling for caution when reporting on Covid-19 racial health disparities and reflect on how the same sense of caution is important when presenting their analysis of poverty and race-based achievement gaps in MCAS scores.
multivariate thinking
statistics education
introductory statistics
communication
Main Sponsor
Section on Statistics and Data Science Education