Baseline Competency and Student Self-efficacy in Data Literacy: Evidence from an Online Module

Abstract

This article documents the degree of baseline data literacy displayed by high school students and college students. It employs data collected from an online instructional module produced by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis to identify specific areas where students exhibit both high and low levels of knowledge. As a novel contribution, this work documents the degree of self-efficacy displayed by each student when answering data literacy-related multiple-choice questions. This analysis finds very similar levels, on average, of baseline data literacy competencies among college students and high school students. At the same time, there are significant differences in the perceived self-efficacy of each group of students. These differences are more marked when students answer questions correctly than when they answer questions incorrectly. Lastly, this work documents overall higher degrees of student competency in the domains related to understanding and communicating about data than in the domains related to evaluating and using data ethically.