Strengthening Data Literacy across the Curriculum

Challenge

In today’s data-driven world, innovation, scientific progress, and the health of civil society demand a data-literate citizenry and a workforce with strong statistical thinking skills. Studies show, however, that schools are neither preparing students adequately nor drawing enough students—particularly from historically marginalized groups—to data science fields.

To address this need, EDC’s Strengthening Data Literacy across the Curriculum project developed and has been studying curriculum materials for high school statistics classes to promote interest and skills in statistical thinking and data science among high schools with large proportions of Black and Latino/a students. The project engages students with data investigations that focus on issues of social justice, using large-scale socioeconomic data sets and online data visualization tools.

Key Activities

EDC has carried out the following activities with its partners:

Worked with statistics and social studies teachers to develop curriculum modules involving data investigations of income inequality and immigration in the United States
Provided professional development and implementation support for educators
Studied classroom module implementation and student learning strategies
Measured the growth in students’ interest in and understanding of important data analysis concepts associated with project modules
Generated and disseminated research findings

Impact

18 participating teachers in 12 Massachusetts high schools helped to develop and test the modules, which reached over 650 students from high schools with predominantly Black students, Latino/a students, and students from families with low incomes.
The team has shared its work in articles (Educational Leadership, Educational Technology & Society, Connected Science Learning); chapters; blog posts ("To Understand Society, We Need to Look at Data" and "Working to Promote Data Literacy and Social Justice"); and videos.