Statistics Teaching and Technology Studies (STATS)

More than a million college students take introductory statistics each year. Unfortunately, a third of these students do not complete the course successfully, with long-term consequences for students planning to use statistics as the math credit they need to graduate. With funding from the Gates Foundation, Digital Promise is conducting a series of research studies aimed at improving teaching and learning in introductory statistics courses, with an emphasis on the teaching practices that bolster effective and equitable outcomes for low-income and first-generation students, as well as students who are Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color. This research will inform the design of a new statistics course, blending research-based, in-class teaching practices with the use of learning software being developed by Lumen Learning. In 2024, Digital Promise will launch a large-scale randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of the blended learning intervention overall, for low-income students, and for African American and Hispanic students.