As a parent, school board member, and statistics educator, Ann Cannon has a unique perspective on statistics education in her local school district in Lisbon, Iowa.
“One of the positive aspects of the Common Core curriculum is its focus on data and data analysis. However, many of our teachers do not have much training in statistics. They are being asked to teach information that they have not been exposed to themselves.”
Ann is the department chair and only statistician in the department of mathematics and statistics at Cornell College. She is also an active ASA member, so she was familiar with the ASA's Meeting Within a Meeting (MWM), a K–12 statistics education program offered every summer at the Joint Statistical Meetings. Ann suggested MWM to the Lisbon Community School principal as a great resource for the teachers to take advantage of.
“I recognized that this was the only year that MWM would be offered close enough for the teachers in my area. Since the school district where I live is very small and not very wealthy, I figured that easy travel to the meeting was important.”
Five teachers signed up to attend. The group included both fifth-grade math teachers, the 6th- and 7th-grade math teacher, and both high-school science teachers.
“The enthusiasm these teachers showed during the workshop was fun to see. And the bits of the session that I saw were really great! I can see why the teachers were so enthusiastic!”
MWM has been a popular program among educators for many years. It is time, and the need clearly exists, to expand and bring it to more locations.
“There are many teachers in this country who would benefit greatly from being able to attend a workshop like MWM. I understand that MWM moves around the country with JSM, but there are large swaths of the country that will never be near a JSM. It would be great if other MWMs could be held elsewhere throughout the year.”
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