Social Justice and Statistics

1. Social JusticeandStatistics Craig Russell University of Illinois Laboratory High School NCTM Chicago 2006

2. Background & Motivation • Teaching Experiences • Mathematical Modeling/COMAP/MMOW • Math for a World that Rocks • “Models in the Media” Statistics Analysis Papers • Research • Anastasia Brelias • School Climate • Community service; annual Habitat trip • Social Advocacy class

3. Learning Standards • NCTM: • Connections: “Recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics” • Data Analysis and Probability: All expectations • Illinois Learning Standards: • Applications: Communicating and making connections • Goals 10A & B: “Collect, organize and analyze data using statistical methods [and] predict results…”

4. Curriculum Context • Statistics is one of four full-year elective courses beyond Algebra 2/Trig; students must take at least one. Other courses include Pre-Calculus and two years of Calculus. Some students take Statistics to avoid more rigorous mathematics; some take Statistics concurrently with another math course. • The course covers all the material tested on the Statistics Advanced Placement exam; some students take the AP each year.

5. Statistics Course “Syllabus” • Major blocks of study: • Descriptive Statistics • Fundamentals of Probability • Design of Experiments • Inferential Statistics • Assessments: • Problem sets/exams/quizzes • Analysis Papers • Lab Reports (individual) • Projects (individual, pair, triple) • Blog??? Online discussion??? Handout includes social justice activities keyed to each major block.

6. Social Justice • Definition? • Scope? • Do students understand the concept? • Students have a schoolyard concept of fairness, and are (at least superficially) aware of some issues related to social justice. • At the outset, students have been unable to articulate even an informal definition of social justice.

7. Student Involvement • Day 1: Introduction to course included a definition of Statistics as a tool for making sense of the world; students were told that the year would include a “focus on social justice.” We discussed (briefly) what that might mean. • Week 1: As part of the first problem set, students were to research the meaning of the term “social justice” and write down their own working definition (with references cited)

8. Further Student Involvement • General discussions • Use of data sets in student assignments • Use of data sets related to social justice issues in class lecture/discussion • Guest speaker “colloquia” from community or other groups

9. Social Justice Discussions • Classroom discussions: genocide, Hurricane Katrina, Kashmiri earthquake, NCLB, affirmative action/college admissions, others according to student interest • Method: Introduce topic at the end of a lesson (last 10 minutes of class), continue discussion for 10-15 minutes the next day. • General class discussions about once every two weeks (sometimes more often, especially during the aftermath to Katrina)

10. Discussion Ground Rules • How does the definition of “social justice” fit? • Is there a way to measure fairness? • What kind of data would you like to be able to collect? • What variables and/or factors contribute to the situation? How are they related—cause and effect?—explanatory?—response? • Are there different “sides” to the issue?

11. Lab Activities • Statistics skills involve data; why not choose relevant data for the students to work with? • Graphical representations • Transformations of data • Correlation and regression • Confidence intervals • Hypothesis tests • In the lab write-up, students address social justice and mathematical issues.

12. Data Interpretation Exercise • Match the group with the graph… data shows mortgage refusal rates for 20 large banks. • High-income white • High-income minority • All white • All minority • Where’s the fairness? Graph from DASL web site

13. Classroom Activities • Modeling situations: • Identifying variables • Formulating hypotheses • Designing experiments/surveys • Interpreting data and representations of data • Role play • All of these can be done in a social justice context!

14. A Sample Activity: Confidence Intervals • Groups of 3-4 students are given different settings; they work together to identify confidence intervals and decide on an appropriate confidence level in order to make a recommendation. They are told to prepare statistical arguments for both sides of the issue. After working together for some time, groups present their findings to the class; the class discusses social justice implications.

15. Confidence, Statistics, and Social Justice • Each group has several scenarios. In each scenario, answer the mathematical part using techniques we have discussed in the past week and a half. Answer the “social justice” part by reasoning out, considering different viewpoints (at least TWO different viewpoints per scenario), adopting a viewpoint if one is not suggested, and answering the question. Be prepared to either DEFEND your answer, or to CRITIQUE answers of other groups. • After a while, I will assign one scenario presentation to each group; for now, consider EACH scenario.

16. Problem-Based Learning • The idea behind PBL is to give students a realistic, large, ill-posed problem, from which they extract meaningful questions, do appropriate research, then present solutions (IMSA’s web site has a great description). • Social justice issues can provide an ideal PBL setting for Statistics projects, whether on a grand or limited scale. • Example: the Illinois legislature requires the study of genocide in the curriculum (Public Act 94-0478). Where? Why not in Statistics?

17. Student Work: Projects • 1st Semester: • Interview with scientist/social scientist about experimental design • Statistical synopsis of local social service agency • 2nd Semester: • Design, conduct, and analyze an experiment (or analyze a large data set collected externally) • What I Could Have Done (and did, after the AP exam, instead of a unit on ANOVA): • Social justice project (abbreviated)

18. Projects with Social Justice Flavor(by student choice) • NCLB survey of elementary teachers in local district… (fall 2004) • Career interview with sociologist (fall 2004) • Statistical overviews of work done by Habitat for Humanity, Planned Parenthood, El Centro, and a homeless shelter (fall 2004, fall 2005) • Analysis of bullying survey data collected by the counseling office (spring 2005) • Minority enlistment in the military (fall 2005) • Sex education in public schools (spring 2005)

19. Social Justice Project • Brainstormed social justice issues as a class • Individuals took an issue and formulated questions with a statistical basis • Students put together an annotated bibliography relevant to their issue • Students chose one question to study; they collected information and used it to “tell a story.” In addition, they documented their research process and thinking as part of the project.

20. Project Results • Affirmative Action • Birth Control: Pharmacist’s Choice? • Access to abortion • Illegal immigration • Health care costs in the U.S. • Minimum wage • Public funding for sports arenas • Socio-economics of military recruiting

21. More Brainstorming • Immigration reform • Patriot act and racial/ethnic profiling • Kyoto Protocol and global warming • Iran and North Korea as nuclear powers • Oil Prices: Where does the money go? • Medicare Prescription Drug Plans • CEO Salaries (or pro athlete, coaches, celebrities, etc.) • Philanthropy: Gates Foundation & others

22. What’s Next? • Continuing this year… More guest speakers? New data sets? New questions? • Students reported that the social justice focus in 2005-2006 made the Statistics class much more relevant. • Is a thematic focus (whether social justice or other topic) appropriate for any math course? • Is an open-ended problem solving approach (PBL or other) appropriate for any math course? • I welcome any suggestions or feedback (my contact info is on the handout). Thanks for stopping in… Enjoy the conference!