Using Statistics to Make Educational Decisions
- David Tanner - California State University, Fresno, USA
This is an accessible introduction to statistics written specifically for Education students in the changing educational landscape.
Government scrutiny and intensified oversight have dramatically changed the landscape of education in recent years. Observers want to know how schools compare, which district is best, which states are spending the most per student on education, whether reforms are making a difference, and why so many students are failing. Some of these questions require technical answers that educators historically redirected to outside experts, but the questions levelled at all educators have become so acute and persistent that they can no longer be outsourced. This text helps educators develop the tools and the conceptual understanding needed to provide definitive answers to difficult statistical questions facing education today.
Using Statistics to Make Educational Decisions is designed to serve as a primary text for undergraduate and graduate-level introductory statistics courses within the field of education. Concise and accessible, it presents a diverse array of education-specific examples and coverage to illuminate the ways in which educators can use statistics for effective decision-making. The integration of measurement concepts makes this text relevant in an age of standardized testing and offers students a preview of more advanced statistical topics.
“This text seems to cover the basics of educational decision making. It would make an excellent text for a course preceding the one I am teaching.”
The content is very specific to my design for the course. The book addresses a wide range of prior content affiliation by the student. It reads very well but still provides necessary mathematical rigor for understading the concepts presented...extremely appropriate for most EdD programs and could also function as an excellent transistion from a mathematics, statistical background into the world of research in the social sciences.
excellent text, very clear and walks students through long-hand calculations.
Also, the ancillary materials are very helpful as an instructor
Provides advanced students with more information and resources
It's well laid out, provides lots of examples, and is written using simple language that is easy for beginner students to follow.
Very easy to read. Dood connection with SPSS and excellent applications.
extremely readable
appropriate for educators
facilitates selection of research methodologies (very important)
Appropriate for Masters Level students in education and has great teacher resources.
Sample Materials & Chapters
Chapter 1: A Context for Solving Quantitative Problems
Chapter 7: One-Way Analysis of Variance