Training Doctoral Students in Educational Statistics in the United States: A National Survey

Abstract

Although numerous research studies have focused on issues related to the teaching of statistics, few studies have focused on the training of people who may become statistics teachers. The purpose of this study was to examine doctoral students' preparation in statistics in the field of education. A national survey was conducted of twenty-seven quantitative methods (QM) programs. One QM professor from each program was identified and asked to describe and evaluate the training of QM and non-QM doctoral students at his or her institution. The vast majority of professors indicated that most or all of the students in their QM programs received training in the “old standard” procedures ‐‐ ANOVA, multiple regression, and traditional multivariate procedures, whereas fewer than half of the professors indicated that most or all of their QM students received training in more recent procedures such as bootstrapping and multilevel models. Professors were also asked to rate the skills of their QM students in areas such as mathematical statistics and computing on a scale from “Weak” to “Strong.” Most professors gave high ratings to their QM students' skills with statistical packages, but gave much more mixed ratings of their QM students' training in mathematical statistics. Nearly half of the professors thought that most of their QM students could have benefited from one or two additional statistics courses. Results are discussed in terms of training future doctoral students.