Statistics picks up steam. (Mathematics).

Mention statistics education and many minds conjure up rigid instruction based on obscure formulas. "My joke is that [statistic] sounds almost like sadistic," says Larry Feldman, director of SEQuaL, the Center for Statistics Education through Qualitative Literacy, and an Indiana University of Pennsylvania associate professor.

Fast-forward to the present, where engaging statistics projects are the norm. For example, students might compete to be named "most ambidextrous" by graphing the difference in ability to draw circles with each hand. And cross-curriculum projects abound: One fourth grade class analyzes how the sizes of the California missions change based on coastal location.

A statistics movement of at least a decade is gaining momentum in schools as it becomes clear that data is everywhere. Careers in business, science, medicine, politics and the arts require number interpretation skills, notes Robert Gould, director of UCLA's Center for Teaching Statistics. He cites the growth of students taking the statistics Advanced Placement exam (7,667 in 1997 vs. 41,609 in 2001) and the 2000 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards including more emphasis on statistics and data analysis as indications of the trend.

"There's not yet large-scale machinery in place for teachers to teach [statistics] classes. Maybe they had a class in college--and maybe not," says Gould. Initiatives such as SEQuaL, which offers workshops for K-12 teachers and administrators in Pennsylvania, are a start for in-service training.

www.stat.ucla.edu, www.ma.iup.edu/projects/SEQual/