Using Work Samples from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to Design Tasks that Assess Statistical Knowledge for Teaching

Abstract

Statistics courses for prospective teachers are being developed in response to recent K-12 curriculum recommendations. As these courses are developed, it is important to design accompanying assessments. This manuscript describes a strategy for assessing aspects of statistical knowledge for teaching. The strategy involves analyzing and responding to children's work samples from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. An example is provided to illustrate how such an assessment task can serve to reveal different aspects of respondents' subject matter knowledge as well as their pedagogical content knowledge. Thoughts are provided on how to use the assessment tasks to identify levels of statistical knowledge for teaching.