Diversity in Statistics Education at Postsecondary Institutions
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Diversity in Statistics Education at Postsecondary Institutions Julie A Lorah 1
& Montserrat
Valdivia 1
# Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Statistics classes are required for postsecondary students in a variety of majors, in addition to students who are statistics majors themselves. Although many students will experience statistics class during college, there is very little research examining the state of diversity within these classes and within statistics programs. This study uses enrollment data from a large Midwestern university as well as nationally (USA) representative data collected from the United States National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) to examine the status of diversity within postsecondary statistics education. Results indicate that the distribution of statistics majors by gender is fairly equitable although females may be somewhat underrepresented. In addition, Black, Hispanic, and White students are shown to be underrepresented compared to the student population, while Asian students and International students are shown to be overrepresented among statistics majors when compared to the student population. Students majoring in the social sciences are often required to take statistics classes as well; results regarding these students indicate that males are underrepresented but that these students are fairly diverse with regard to race/ethnicity. Implications and associated pedagogical guidance are explored. Keywords Statistics education research . Postsecondary education . Race/ethnicity .
Gender
* Julie A Lorah [email protected] Montserrat Valdivia [email protected]
1
Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, Indiana University Bloomington School of Education, 201 N Rose Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
International Journal of Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education
Introduction Statistics education at postsecondary institutions serves a wide range of students from those who will be statistics majors and pursue a profession in the field to those who will develop their expertise in quantitative methods in tandem with another substantive area in the social and behavioral sciences to those who simply need to pass a required statistics class for their intended area of study. In this way, statistics education serves a diverse group of students. In fact, because so many college students face introductory statistics as a degree requirement, statistics education research has attracted scholars from a variety of fields (Garfield and Ben-Zvi 2007, p. 372) although the field of statistics education may still be considered emerging and relatively understudied (Garfield and Ben-Zvi 2007). Statistics classes need to serve students with a wider range of confidence and interest as well as an increasingly diverse set of students (Stephenson 2010; Verhoeven and Tempelaar 2014), underscoring the unique and important role of statistics education. The present study examines the question of diversity in st
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