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The page is now wiki, and will benefit from your input. To be able to contribute, please login and proceed from there. Contact the ISLP Director to get help editing if you need it.
We have divided this web page into three pages for ease of printing. The three pages are:
O-Z on this page. The countries include OECD, Philippines, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, UNSIAP, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, UNECE, UNESCO and United States of America.
A-C which includes Argentina, Republic of Armenia, Australia, Austria, Republic of Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada and Cyprus.
D-N which includes Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, FAO, France, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, ISI, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macao, Republic of Mauritius, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Nicaragua.
Note: This web page only contains descriptions of formal training programs, learning materials, projects and other efforts developed by national and international statistical offices. They are listed here in alphabetical order by country. Other statistical literacy efforts and projects of these organizations are described on the ISLP (Int. Stat. Literacy Project) page. There is more information at International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS).
The papers and presentations from the 2004 Joint Statistical Meetings Invited Session sponsored by IASE on "Training of Government Statisticians" are also a good source of information on official statistics.
OECD Glossary “contains a comprehensive set for target definitions of the main variables collected by the Organisation for use in its statistical and analytical output. In addition, the Glossary contains definitions of key terminology and concepts used in OECD publications. Finally, the Glossary contains commonly used acronyms.” (quoted from OECD’s webpage about the glossary).
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is an internationally standardized assessment that was jointly developed by participating countries and administered to more than a million 15-year-olds in schools in over 60 countries between the years 2000 and 2006. PISA assesses how far students near the end of compulsory education have acquired some of the knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in society. In all cycles, the domains of reading, mathematical and scientific literacy and problem solving are covered not merely in terms of mastery of the school curriculum, but in terms of important knowledge and skills needed in adult life. Four different aspects of mathematics were tested.
This document presents a case for the inclusion of Statistical Literacy in the curriculum, necessary if we want our children to become fully involved in society.
The OECD Factbook provides a global overview of economic, social and environmental trends through a highly accessible presentation of over 100 key indicators from OECD countries and many non-member countries (including China, Brazil and South Africa). It provides an excellent entry point into international statistics for those with no statistical training, be they high school students, policy makers, researchers or journalists. For each indicator, attractive graphs and tables are presented alongside clear explanations of issues such as definition, measurement and long-term trends. References for further information are included for those who wish to find out more. It is available on line for free. See also Factbook quiz.
The OECD Statistics Directorate regularly sends out a newsletter to its extended statistical network on current issues in statistical methodology and co-operation. This could be of interest to ISLP users. Past issues of the newsletter are available at The OECD Statistics Newsletter.
All OECD methodological publications are currently freely available in PDF format.
Examples:
Understanding National Accounts is an electronic book that explains what GDP and GNI and their components are, and what they mean. It shows how they are used and what they are used for. And it uses practical examples and exercises to clearly explain these notions. It is intended as an accessible introduction to national accounts, for use by undergraduates or advanced upper secondary students. An electronic version provides exercises and answers for those using the text.
The OECD ‘at a glance’ series of publications applies the user-friendly Factbook approach to individual topics such as: Health, Development Aid, Society (social indicators), Education. Again, it is aimed both at those with no previous statistical or economic training as well as experts and policy makers in the field.
Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies PIAAC (OECD) is a plan by the OECD. It addresses critical statistical skills needed by adults as part of general everyday or workplace functioning. It is somewhat similar in general terms to the PISA assessment program of high school students which is now implemented in dozens of countries. One of the several domains of PIAAC will be numeracy and one of the strands in it will be knowledge of statistica (data and chance). A talk by Iddo Gal at the IASE Satellite Conference in Guimaraes, August 19-21 2007 contains valuable information on this project and the potential contribution to it of statistics educators.
“Established in November 1999 in response to the UN Economic and Social Council resolution on the goals of the UN Conference on Development, the PARIS21 Consortium was launched to act as a catalyst for promoting a culture of evidence-based policymaking and monitoring in all countries, and especially in developing countries. The Consortium is a partnership of policymakers, analysts, and statisticians from all countries of the world. We focus on promoting high-quality statistics, making these data meaningful, and designing sound policies. Our role in PARIS21 is to foster more effective dialogue among those who produce development statistics and those who use them, through facilitating international events, supporting country-based activities, regional workshops, and subject matter task teams.” (Quoted from PARIS21 webpage.)
Through its National Statistical Information Center, the NSCB has been conducting the seminar in response to the clamor of corporate planners, market researchers and entrepreneurs to be informed on the sources and concepts of statistical information relevant to business planning. Specifically, the seminar is envisioned to improve data linkages with the business sector as the prime movers of the economy, increase utilization of available statistics, promote better understanding of concepts and indicators, and gather feedbacks on their needs. The mix of participants who have attended the more than ten sessions include staff of business entities, academe and even government institutions involved in planning, policy and decision-making. Thus far, this forum has been successful in enhancing statistical awareness. Attendance in the seminar is for a fee.
For more information, contact Director Lina V. Castro, 2nd Floor, Midland Buendia Building, 403 Senator Gil J. Puyat Avenue, Buendia Extension, Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines. email: lv.castro@nscb.gov.ph.
The NSCB website and the National Statistical Information Center, with its central and ten regional branches and thru the Library, Bookshoppe and databases (e.g., I-Stats), also cater to the research requirements of students at the second and tertiary levels including advanced studies. These have become useful avenues for dissemination of data and other statistical information to promote wider awareness on the PSS.
NSO to open 13th National Statistics Month Celebration
The annual National Statistics Month (NSM) was started in 1990, the nationwide observance of the NSM is held every October of the year with a specific theme focusing on sectoral and other emerging fields of statistics. It has become an effective venue for strengthening and unifying the Philippine statistical community in promoting and instilling nationwide awareness and appreciation of the importance of statistics. The activities undertaken during the whole month include exhibits, symposia, trainings, seminars, lecture series and contests. Participation in these fora is open/free to identified audience.
The target audience of the various activities include students and the general public. Specifically, most of the contests held cater to students at the elementary, secondary and tertiary levels as participants. These competitions include statistical quiz, poster/slogan making, essay writing, and oratorical contests. For the past years, the closing ceremonies of the NSM is held as part of the Oratorical Contest for High School students sponsored by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP, the Central Bank of the Philippines) and Department of Education (DepEd). The annual contest has “served as a venue for promoting awareness in statistics, for instilling pride in Philippine culture and for hearing the voice of the young” (Compilation of Winning Pieces, BSP-DepEd Oratorical Contest: 1996-2001).
The conduct of these fora was advocated as a policy aimed at public consultation prior to institutionalization of methodologies and towards the improvement of products and services of the NSCB. Specifically, these fora serve as venues for making the public aware of compilation systems, their uses and limitations and eliciting suggestions for further improvements in the methodologies and dissemination. It brings together in one venue the compilers and data producers as well as users that include those from government agencies, private companies, media, academe, research institutions and non-government organizations. Participation is open to invited and selected staff/representatives of these institutions.
The following courses are organized on a regular basis or will be organized in the next few years:
Apprenticeship Training is also designed as requested. There are details on these courses, including the names, emails, etc. on people to contact for further information. There are seminars conducted in National Statistics Office regional offices where students/teachers, NGOs (non-governmental organizations), and LGUs (local government units) are invited on the discussion of survey results.
The PSQ is an annual contest designed to test first-year college students’ knowledge of statistics. The 2002 PSQ, the eleventh in the series, will be conducted on a nationwide basis involving students enrolled in colleges and universities in the National Capital Region and in the other 15 regions of the country.
The Statistical Research and Training Center (SRTC) offers training courses for statisticians working in the Philippine Statistical System.
The training courses offered by the SRTC cater to the needs of the personnel in various statistical offices/units of the government in handling various aspect of statistical work such as data collection and processing, development and management of database and data analysis, presentation and dissemination. A list of the regularly offered training courses and their descriptions is at the SRTC webpage. (Note: A copy as of 29 July.) Aside from the regularly offered training, the SRTC also develops and conducts statistical training programs that cater to the specific needs of an agency, office or institution.
The cost of participation for 5-day and 8-day training programs are PhP5,800 and PhP8,500 for local participants, respectively. For foreign participants, the costs are US$500 and US$800 for 5-day and 8-day training programs, respectively.
This book deals with the basic concepts of descriptive and inferential statistics. Previous knowledge of statistics is not necessary in order to understand the statistical techniques discussed. This book was primarily developed for college use. Basic statistical concepts, definitions, and reasoning are discussed. A number of examples are illustrated with Microsoft Excel and using data generated by the Philippine Statistical System.
This is a reference book for 4th year high school students on Applied Mathematics, which incorporates basic statistical concepts, definitions and methodologies. A companion book for high school teachers is being developed which features examples, illustrations and exercises of the reference book.
The SRTC has developed and updated training materials for all its regular training programs (see above) and 3 training modules for its Statistical Human Resource Development Program (SHRDP) intended for the statistical personnel in the regions. The 3 modules of the SHRDP are:
For further information on all of the above activities of the SRTC contact Gervacio G. Selda, Jr., Executive Director, Statistical Research and Training Center, 104 J and S Building, Kalayaan Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City 1101 PHILIPPINES email: ggseldajr@srtc.gov.ph.
A forum, co-sponsored by the SRTC and the PSA, was held in April 2002. In said activity, representatives from various statistical agencies, mathematical and statistical organizations and from the Department of Education attended the forum to discuss the activities for the promotion of statistical literacy in the Philippines. For further information contact Gervacio G. Selda, Jr., Executive Director, Statistical Research and Training Center, 104 J and S Building, Kalayaan Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City 1101 PHILIPPINES email: ggseldajr@srtc.gov.ph.
Projecto Alea, Local Action for Applied Statistics, is a project in Portugal that constitutes a link between the National Statistics Office and a secondary school (Tomaz Pelayo) towards the development of Statistical Literacy. The web page is also featured in English, although the interface looks a little different in content in the English version than the Portuguese one.
The project was developed with the intention of providing readers of literature that contain statistical information with resources to understand the information and determine its relevance. The project produces instrumentos for the comprehension, utilization and teaching of Statistics, targeted mainly at secondary education, with the goal of promoting statistical literacy. Their web page contains a rich set of very interesting resources, games, interesting Statistics about Portugal and other countries, questions of the week, e-course lessons and many other unique items to enhance statistical literacy.
Highly recommended is to read their brochure and browse their web page. Of interest is also their magazine Aleazine. There are also some publications about the philosophy of the project. See, for example, The Future of ESS. ALEA has won the 1st Best Cooperative Project Award given by the ISLP in 2007.
ALEA also includes other statistical learning themes. There is a paper in English from 1999 on the project.
Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana
(in cooperation with Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” in Bulgaria, and the now defunct Training of European Statisticians (TES) Institute in Luxembourg)
This course was developed with financial assistance from the Phare Multi-Country Co-Operation for Distance Education Programme. Throughout the course development period, experts from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia acted as consultants and as evaluators. The course focuses primarily on international statistical standards (as prepared by various UN agencies, Eurostat, ILO etc.) and their implementation in national statistical systems of Slovenia and Bulgaria. It has a modular structure and can be fairly simply adapted to the needs of the users from different European countries (the only building block that needs to be changed is the one called “National Statistical Practice”).
The website is temporarily undergoing redevelopment. A three page summary of the project is in Word format and in PDF format. Further information is available by contacting the course developers: lea.bregar@ef.uni-lj.si, irena.ograjensek@ef.uni-lj.si, or mojca.bavdaz@ef.uni-lj.si.
Census 2001 at a glance has extensive educational information from the primary school level to the adult level related to their 2001 national census.
Maths4stats project of Statistics South Africa
“The Maths4stats project is one of Statistics South Africa’s series of activities initiated to encourage the development of mathematics education, which in turn is an important bedrock for statistics. It represents the effort to restore numeracy and statistical literacy in South Africa.” (Quoted from website.)
This is one of the competing projects for the best cooperative project award in 2009. See more information at Best Cooperative Project Award.
Institute of Statistics of Andalusia (in English)
Instituto Andaluz de Estadística
This site would like to offer the students and teachers data about Andalucia. You can find data and also an Internet aplication SIMA that offers teachers and students the possibility of making charts and maps with data of the country.
El portal oficial del Instituto Andaluz de Estadística ofrece datos actualizados mediante la aplicación SIMA de Andalucía para que los profesores y alumnos puedan construir sus gráficos, mapas, actividades, preguntas,... Esperamos que muy pronto nos puedan ofrecer además un portal educativo. Mientras tanto, los profesores andaluces, vía la página principal del portal podemos solicitar el programa SIMA gestor de datos que permite representar gráficamente, crear filtros de datos, para su posterior análisis e interpretación.
Eustat contiene actividades para ayudar a los alumnos a interpretar datos y sacar conclusionses de los datos. Las lenguas de las actividades son Euskadi y Español. Los juegos, los retos, las actividades y otros elementos son tanto para alumnos y alumnas como docentes o padres y madres. Hay desde apartados lúdicos y ligeros hasta material para preparar clases lectivas adecuadas a cada nivel educativo.
Ikasle, irakasle edo gurasoek, hemen zuon jarduerak garatzeko materiala aurkituko duzue. Batetik jolasteko atalak eta atal errazak aurkituko dituzue; eta, bestetik, hezkuntza-maila bakoitzera egokitutako eskolak prestatzeko materiala.
This resource is in the vasque language and in Spanish.
Portal educativo del Instituto Galego de Estatística (IGE)
This site would like to offer the students and teachers data about our region Galiza. There are activities, tasks, exercises, contents, ..
Este portal educativo xorde coa intención de que os nosos mozos e mozas coñezan os datos e fontes estatísticas dispoñibles e se acostumen a analizalos e interpretalos. Nel poderás atopar unidades didácticas, actividades e exercicios relacionados coa estatística ademais doutros contidos máis xerais como por exemplo: representacións gráficas, historia da estatística ou conceptos manexados na estatística pública.
This site offers its information in galician language.
The mission of UNSIAP is to “provide professional training to statisticians on official statistics, and [to] facilitate enhancing the training capability building at the country level of the developing countries of the ESCAP [Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific] region through multilateral efforts and arrangements. ... The Institute aims to strengthen, through practically oriented training of official statisticians, the capability of the developing countries of the region to collect, analyze and disseminate statistics as well as to produce timely and high-quality statistics that can be utilized for economic and social development planning and to assist those developing countries in establishing or strengthening their statistical training capability and other related activities. The programmes of the Institute are carried out through: offer of fellowships for general courses, advanced courses and training workshops; conduct of country courses, expert missions for providing advice and on-the-job training; and the preparation of training materials. ... The Institute also conducts an outreach programme depending on the availability of funds. The programme consists of : country courses, on-the-job training and expert missions to assist national statistical offices, and advanced courses / sub regional workshops and seminars to improve statistics on emerging policy related subjects.” (Quoted from UNSIAP webpage)
The full name of this CD-Rom is “AWARENESS/TRAINING CD-ROM IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE UNFPA-FUNDED PROJECT (RAS/96/P12) ON THE APPLICATION OF NEW TECHNOLOGY IN POPULATION DATA COLLECTION, PROCESSING, DISSEMINATION AND PRESENTATION”.
It contains most of the technical documentation generated during the project, including material compiled by the ESCAP Working Party on Application of New Technology to Population Data, and papers and presentations of two training workshops organized in Bangkok, namely: Application of New Information Technology to Population Data (October 1999) and Population Data Analysis, Storage and Dissemination Technologies (March 2001). The CD also contains related documentation from other sources, links to selected statistical websites and selected statistical software packages.
Order free copies of the CD-Rom by submission of your name, designation and postal mail address to: staff@unsiap.or.jp.
The Internet service "Klassrummet" is targeted at upper secondary schools. The service is meant for both teachers and pupils. The service includes various mini-surveys which the teachers can conduct in the classroom and afterwards compare the results with similar surveys conducted by other educational institutions. Educational institutions can also check their community profile and compare their own community with others. The service also includes a Net School in statistics which offers briefs and articles on statistics and their use. In addition to the net service, Statistics Sweden also organizes various training courses and seminars for their customers. These courses and seminars are not free of charge.
Pénombre “aims at promoting discussion between experts in data production and a variety of ‘consumers’: administrative and political decision-makers, journalists, teachers, and concerned citizens.” (Quoted from a brochure in English given out at ISI Biennial Session in 2001)
This resource is in 4 languages. It is a program of the Swiss Federal Statistical Office.
This is a set of lessons only in French and German only, but appropriate for education in schools. It is a program of the Swiss Federal Statistical Office.
Office for National Statistics
Census in School provides materials for primary and secondary school students related to both the UK National Census and the children’s census (called CensusAtSchool), including downloadable portions of a CD-Rom that was part of a census information packet sent to more than 27 000 schools in England and Wales. There is more information about the CensusAtSchool.
(Note: Information on children’s censuses in other countries is located on ISLP website.)
Census Education provides materials for primary and secondary school students related to both the UK National Census and the children’s census (called CensusAtSchool), including downloadable portions of a CD-Rom that was part of a census information packet sent to more than 27 000 schools in England and Wales. Information on the CensusAtSchool can be directly accessed. (Note: Information on children’s censuses in other countries is located on this website at Children Census web site.)
Stats4chools ( in English and in Welsh) is about helping teachers and pupils to get more from statistics. For pupils, it has datasets that can be download and included in projects, free of charge. For teachers, it has lesson plans and worksheets, which can be downloaded and used in class. Stats4schools is managed by the independent Office for National Statistics, and includes data from across government (paraphrased from website).
The Maths, Stats and OR Network
“The Maths, Stats & OR Network (one of 24 Subject Centres within the Higher Education Academy) supports teaching and learning within Mathematics, Statistics & Operational Research, and other disciplines where components of these subjects are taught. We work with individual academics, departments, professional bodies, employers and students to develop and share excellent practice that will enhance the learning experience.
More specifically we aim to:
If you have any questions, or would like to take advantage of our support, then please contact us.”
(Quoted from website.)
The National Numeracy Strategy is a project of the UK Department for Education and Skills. It is very comprehensive and contains many things relevant to statistical literacy.
The Centre for Statistical Education of the Royal Statistical Society of the UK aims ‘To promote the improvement of statistical education, training and understanding at all ages’. Work to support this aim will be carried out in four main areas:
(i) school and further education
(ii) higher education for all courses in which statistics is taught
(iii) continuing professional development including all who use statistics as part of their professional life
(iv) society as a whole.”
(Quoted directly from webpage). This website is very comprehensive.
They offer a set of materials “for studying how to teach statistics at Higher Education (HE) level. These take the form of distance learning courses and materials, and are run by The Higher Education Academy Maths, Stats and OR Network, in association with The Royal Statistical Society Centre for Statistical Education. In the first of these prospects, individuals study externally for a Certificate in Teaching Statistics in HE. This is awarded by the Royal Statistical Society and also entitles the holder of the Certificate to be an Associate Practitioner of the Higher Education Academy. Alternatively, individuals can study the materials through their staff development units, possibly as part of a PgCert/Diploma in Learning and Teaching. The course is well suited for staff induction courses. A third prospect is for the course materials to be used on a self-study basis.” (Quoted from website, with bold face type added).
Recently, the RSS Centre for Statistical Education (see above for description) has introduced a new project called ExperimentsAtSchool that is related to the CensusAtSchool project (Note: For information on CensusAtSchool and other children’s censuses go to Census). Using the CensusAtSchool practice of collecting data from pupils, and disseminating them, using the Internet, the RSS Centre for Statistical Education is going to collect data from science experiments done at school by students across the whole age range in primary and secondary schools.
From the pilot web site you will find 6 experiments that any school in the world can take part in. You will need a school identifier code to enable you to input data, but if you or your school are outside the UK and want to take part, contact neville.davies@ntu.ac.uk for an id number. Other ways to become involved in the ExperimentsAtSchool project include: 1. Suggesting experiments which would generate data of interest; 2. Volunteering for your school to take part in the pilot trials for selected experiments during May – July 2003; 3. Researching and/or designing and writing new experiments; 4. Helping to write and/or trial classroom resources based on the data collected in the project. Note: Participants from any country are welcome. For further information contact Neville Davies, Royal Statistical Society (RSS) Centre for Statistical Education, Nottingham Trent University, UK, email: neville.davies@ntu.ac.uk.
This booklet is on the Internet. It “is intended as a practical guide assisting statistical offices in setting up effective communications with the media and, in turn, with the general public. It should serve as a quick reference presenting the main principles and a general overview of the issues to be considered. It is a distillation of experience over the years and draws from the numerous papers and presentations from the meetings organized by the UNECE on dissemination of statistical output to information media” (quoted from UN Statistics Newsletter, April 2004).
So far, only the text of the document is available, but the site is supposed to be developed further with supporting material and documents. The guide is also available in soft cover for purchase from UNECE. See the details.
In Word format and in PDF format.
“The Handbook of Statistical Organization, Third Edition: The Operation and Organization of a Statistical Agency deals with the fundamentals of national systems of official statistics: general principles, data collection and respondent policies, principles of organization and management, and dissemination guidelines. Key chapters discuss: The structure of statistical systems, Coordination tools, The chief statistician, Users and their needs, Developing a progress plan, Managing staff, Managing information technology, Interacting with respondents, Getting information to the users [and] Confidentiality and disclosure. The intended audience for the Handbook are both chief statisticians (and their colleagues) and those charged with oversight of the official statistics function. The Third Edition (ST/ESA/STAT/SER.F/88) is a complete revision of the 1980 edition ... In due course, the Third Edition will also be issued in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish.” (Quoted from webpage). There is further information.
in English / in Spanish / in French
The UN has declared the years of 2003 to 2012 as the United Nations Literacy Decade. Although these webpages do not specifically address statistical literacy, they provide an overview of the information on the UN Literacy Decade.
The resource on “Literacy statistics” introduces users to issues involved in the interpretation of official statistics on literacy levels, and also enables users to obtain statistical data about literacy levels for different countries and world regions, using an official UNESCO database. It is a component of the “International Literacy Explorer”, a learning program from the International Literacy Institute (co-founded by UNESCO and the Univ. of Pennsylvania, USA), designed for those interested in basic education practices. Given that most nations collect and report data about literacy skills of their citizens to inform discussions by educators, officials, and interest groups, this resource can help teachers and adult learners who want to know more about statistics used by official agencies or who want to find interesting statistical data for classroom discussions or projects. A Glossary of selected terms used in international official statistics related to literacy and education levels is available.
This website provides education activities and information for students everywhere. It is in an interactive format. There is also a parent support page.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - Division of International Technical Cooperation website
The Division of International Technical Cooperation of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) strengthens statistical development around the world through technical cooperation, seminars, and customized training programs. For over 50 years, BLS has assisted statistical organizations throughout the world in the collection, processing, analysis, dissemination, and use of labor statistics. Fees are charged for seminars, customized training programs, and consultants. Short-term international visitors are welcome at BLS, free of charge.
Each year, BLS conducts seminars of 1 to 4 weeks duration at its training facilities in Washington, D.C. The seminars bring together statisticians, economists, analysts, and other data users from countries all over the world. Each seminar is designed to strengthen the participants’ ability to collect and analyze economic and labor statistics. Seminars may include a field trip, as well as lectures, discussions, and workshops. Seminars offered yearly are Economic Indicators; Labor Market Information; Measuring Productivity; Survey Methods; Measuring Wages, Earnings, and Benefits; Constructing Price Indexes; Employment and Unemployment Statistics; Projecting Tomorrow’s Workforce Needs; and Analyzing Labor Statistics. In addition to the regularly scheduled seminars, customized training programs on other topics in labor statistics or price indexes may be arranged upon request.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics may hold overseas seminars on selected topics in labor statistics for participants from a particular country or region. Most overseas seminars are from 1 to 2 weeks in duration. The cost of overseas seminars depends upon the number of instructors required, the duration of the seminar, travel and per diem costs, and cost of simultaneous interpretation and translation of materials (if needed). Where a number of participants from one country or region need training in the same subject area, an overseas seminar may be cost-effective. Because of the lead-time that is required to plan an overseas seminar, requests for such programs should be submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics at least 6 months in advance of the desired starting date.
For more information, contact Brian E. Graf, Chief, Division of International Technical Cooperation, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2 Massachusetts Avenue NE, Rm. 2190, Washington DC 20212 USA, email: itcinfo@bls.gov.
This website contains the entire “BLS Handbook of Methods”.
Joint Program in Survey Methodology (of the U.S. Census Bureau, The University of Michigan, and University of Maryland, and Westat Corporation)
This is a comprehensive program of courses in survey methodology that ranges from short courses for both non-statisticians and statisticians to courses to complete a Ph.D. in this area. The more elementary short courses include “Introduction to Survey Methods for Business and Organizations”, “Introduction to Survey Estimation” and “Statistical MetaData: Understanding Its Role in Survey Processes”.
For more information on short courses contact Elisabeth Schneider at dodo@isr.umich.edu. For more information on long courses contact Pam Ainsworth at painswor@survey.umd.edu or 1218 Lefrak Hall, University of Maryland, College Park MD 20742.
The Census in Schools project was designed to provide educators with the teaching tools, resource materials, workshops and other professional development activities to bring the census to life for students and to explain the importance and benefits of a census. This website has Census data and free teaching materials (see below for details) that are available for Four-year-olds to Adults. They are subject listed from A to Z.
Although the web page has as heading “Census in Schools,” there is no relation to CensusAtSchools.
This webpage contains more than “Making Sense of Census 2000”, but only “Making Sense of Census 2000” is described here. “Making Sense of Census 2000” kits were developed jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and Scholastic, Inc. These kits included a teachers’ guide, lesson plans, both in-class and take-home activities and large, colorful maps of the USA and its commonwealths and territories. Separate versions were made for the USA for ages 3 to 5 (called Head Start version), ages 5 to 10, ages 10 to 14 and ages 14 to 19 and for each of Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. There were also versions for instructors of adult literacy and for instructors of English as a Second Language. Further, there were separate Census 2000 kits sent to every school principal in the USA, Puerto Rico, and the Island Areas.
The week of 21 to 25 February 2000 was designated as Census in Schools Week. During this week members of Congress (i.e., the national legislature) promoted participation in Census 2000 and in the Census in Schools project (see above).
The week of 13 to 17 March 2000 was designated as Teach Census Week. This week was promoted as a prime teach to teach about the 2000 Census, since it was the week the Census questionnaires were delivered to most homes.
The purpose of the Jacobs Award program is to provide encouragement for students to gain an understanding and appreciation of surveys and their uses. To appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of statistics reported in the press and elsewhere, it is important to have a basic understanding of how surveys are taken and how results are produced. Students must attend a high school or middle school in the Washington, D.C. area. Students may work individually or in teams of up to four students. A five to ten page typewritten report must be submitted. Subject matter is the choice of the participants. The students must collect original data. A copy of the data and questionnaire must be enclosed with the project report.
FedStats (Federal Statistics USA) is a gateway to statistics from over 100 U.S. Federal agencies. An interesting feature is a website listing U.S. government statistical webpages aimed at young people. Many of the these websites also have datasets aimed at primary and secondary school children.
Award for Excellence in Statistical Reporting
As part of its activities aiming at providing academia, government, industry and the public with up-to-date, useful information about statistics, the ASA has started an award for “Excellence in Statistical Reporting”. The award will be granted to an individual or an organization for articles, comments, reports, released through radio, broadcast, web, etc. that have made “contributions to outstanding, innovative, and influential communications on statistics” (quoted from application form). This award seems to be a very interesting and challenging way to make statistical topics easy to understand. In the meantime, this could enforce the important role of the media in statistics in public life. The knowledge of this project should provide useful ideas to all the institutes or organizations whose commitment is the improvement of statistical literacy.
Center of Statistical Education
The American Statistical Association (ASA) efforts in statistical literacy are coordinated through their Center for Statistical Education. Links to the ASA’s quantitative literacy projects over the years can be found on the K-12.
Poster and Project Competitions
Each year the American Statistical Association (ASA) sponsors two separate national competitions: A poster competition and a written project competition. Some local chapters of the ASA also sponsor local or regional competitions.
10 Brochures About Survey Research
This is a series of 10 brochures that discuss the basics of survey research. They assume no knowledge of statistics and can be used with secondary students and beyond. Each brochure can be accessed separately at the website. The brochures were developed by the ASA Survey Research Methods Section.
Statistics Teacher Network newsletter
The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Education (CAUSE) is a national organization whose mission is to support and advance undergraduate statistics education, in four target areas: resources, professional development, outreach, and research.
Activities include two webinars per month, a variety of workshops, a major biennial conference (USCOTS), two competitions, and a digital library containing an expansive list of annotated and searchable links for statistics teachers and for statistics education researchers.
Email: info@causeweb.org.
Juarez Lincoln Marti Project (in English, although many of the links go to documents in Spanish)
“The Juarez-Lincoln-Marti International Education Project ... is completely dedicated to providing faculty development opportunities and exchanges, finding scholarships for faculty, students and staff, developing technology infusion and classroom administration workshops and donating educational materials to Mexican and Iberoamerican universities, especially small, public provincial institutions.” (Quoted from webpage). For further information contact Jorge Luis Romeu at jlromeu@syr.edu.
The following two websites are about general quantitative literacy and are aimed mostly at the post-secondary level.
MAA Online contains a website for Quantitative Literacy resources, including those formerly located on the website of the National Council on Education and the Disciplines (NCED) website of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.
SIGMAA QL contains the website of the Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America on Quantitative Literacy (SIGMAA QL). “SIGMAA QL aims to provide a structure within the mathematics community to identify the prerequisite mathematical skills for quantitative literacy (QL) and find innovative ways of developing and implementing QL curricula. We also intend to assist colleagues in other disciplines to infuse appropriate QL experiences into their courses and hope to stimulate the general national dialogue concerning QL..” (copied from websites).
This “organization offers its members a network of individuals, institutions and corporations united by the common goal of quantitative literacy for all citizens. Through newsletters, national meetings, faculty workshops and research initiatives, the National Numeracy Network aims to strengthen the capacity of our country in the areas of business, industry, education and research across all discliplinary boundaries.” (Quoted from webpage). It is more than statistical literacy. But, there is enough there to make it worth looking at.
The Washington Statistical Society (WSS) is a chapter of the American Statistical Association (ASA) serving the greater Washington, DC area. It has been heavily involving in the promotion of statistical literacy (mostly at the elementary and secondary school levels) since 1991. A two-page document summarizing their work is as a Word document and as PDF file.
The most recent copy of a brochure they distribute to schools and elsewhere is as a Word document and as PDF file. For further information on the WSS’s statistical literacy efforts contact Wendy Rotz at wendy.rotz@ey.com.
“ This web site provides a variety of assessment resources for teaching first courses in Statistics. Currently we provide articles and weblinks related to assessing student outcomes. In the near future, this site will contain assessment items and tasks, provide online testing, offer guidelines for using the assessment items and tasks, and allow for the collection and compilation of data for research and evaluation purposes.” (Quoted from website homepage.)
This page was coordinated by Reija Helenius, Statistics Finland, Finland, until it became wiki. If you have any suggestions for additional items that should be included on this page, please contact us or insert it yourself.
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