Supporting Teacher Enactment of the Probability and Statistics Standards (STEPSS)

The Supporting Teacher Enactment of the Probability and Statistics Standards (STEPSS) program is a curriculum and professional development intervention designed for grade 7 mathematics students to improve understanding of probability and statistics. The program uses a 20-day curriculum unit published by the American Statistical Association that addresses all probability and statistics standards in the grade 7 course description. The curriculum employs an inquiry-oriented instructional design model involving four phases of statistical investigation: formulating questions answerable by data, designing and implementing data collection plans, analyzing data using graphical and numerical methods, and interpreting analyses in context. Teachers attend four days of professional development workshops (two days in summer, two during the school year) before implementing the unit. In the first three workshop days, teachers learn statistics content by participating as students in the same lessons they will teach. In the fourth workshop, teachers practice delivering lessons to peers and reflect on implementation. The unit can be implemented at any point during the school year and requires approximately four weeks (20 days) of instruction time.