Statistics Resources Toolkit: An Institutional Guide to Implementing a Statistics Pathway

A new Statistics Resources Toolkit is now available to help postsecondary mathematics departments and institutional systems develop and implement statistics pathways.

As states nationwide begin to adopt and/or revise legislation regarding corequisite supports and math pathways, the Statistics Resources Toolkit and other Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) resources are useful for teams building robust, new pathways and course models.

These Dana Center resources would have helped me immensely years ago, when I was a mathematics faculty member at a Hispanic-serving institution in southeast Texas. In 2017, HB 2223 and the Texas Pathways model required all higher education institutions to offer viable math pathways with their accompanying corequisite courses. Although my college had begun creating and implementing pathways and corequisites well before 2017, we lacked clear guidance and practical resources to help us research, pilot, and redesign courses in response to the new requirements. 

Moving Beyond “Math Problems on Paper” 

In 2010, my institution piloted a college algebra corequisite with an outside curricular resource. We quickly realized, however, that this resource was more prescriptive and less innovative. In addition, it did not empower nor facilitate our institution to design a corequisite that was unique to our campus and our students. It was simply math problems on paper.  

Our department realized the solution needed to come from within our multicampus district. Therefore, we assembled a cross-district task force, which was supported and paid for by our administration and comprised of faculty members. Keeping our students’ success at the forefront, our early efforts were costly and time-intensive, with little guidance or research. While we learned about building a comprehensive corequisite course, we knew we still needed corequisite supports for our business, quantitative reasoning, and statistic pathways. Our task force would have benefited greatly from having tools to guide our work.

But now, institutional stakeholders can take advantage of using the Statistics Resources Toolkit in their own work. While specific for a statistics pathway, the toolkit can guide institutions in developing other pathways that align with their students’ aspirations.

Getting Started

The Statistics Resources Toolkit covers topics such as placement methods, course content, pedagogical design practices, learning outcomes for an introductory statistics course, and corequisite statistic support. Most important, it provides the framework for designing a strong statistics pathway that is unique to an institution and its students.

The Statistics Resources Toolkit includes: 

• Recommendations on implementing an effective and relevant statistics pathway (e.g., sample syllabi, pedagogy recommendations, statistical analysis tools, curricular design, placement recommendations, statistical corequisite support)
• Recommendations on qualifications for teaching statistics
• Recommendations on support for faculty teaching statistics  

Why Having a Statistics Pathway Matters 

When students are provided with viable and relevant math associated with their interests, such as statistics, they are likely to feel more connected to the content.

Due to the math pathways movement and corequisite supports, institutions across the nation are achieving the successful alignment of math content to career aspirations. However, creating and implementing these pathways and corequisites require time, resources, and research. The Statistics Resources Toolkit gives institutional shareholders the resources to implement a robust statistics pathway that is unique to their institution. With a statistics pathway as an entry math course for students, other pathways, like the path to calculus, could be revitalized and strengthened so students can be in courses affiliated with their interests.

Additional Resources 

The Statistics Resources Toolkit works concordantly with the Communicating Support Resources to Corequisite Students Toolkit and the Corequisite Student Outreach and Extended Support Toolkit to provide a variety of applicable resources for institutions, faculty, and students.  

This toolkit was created through the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) design team, in partnership with the Corequisite Research Design Collaborative. To learn more about this work, click below:

Curricular Resources for Higher Education

Corequisite Research Design Collaborative