Some good paragraphs, now homeless

You may or may not know that one of the expectations in my job is to conduct research and disseminate my findings, usually through reputable, peer-reviewed sources. I recently had a manuscript accepted in the 2010 Yearbook of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, but the editors wanted it just a bit shorter. Therefore, I removed a few paragraphs that had taken hours to carefully craft. Rather than letting them disappear forever, I am posting them here. It is really hard to say goodbye to these "children" of mine. (To those who would like the references, or would like to know where these paragraphs fit into the accepted version, I will happily provide you that information. Bless you!)

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The NACOME report also referenced materials that were designed by the Joint Committee on the Curriculum in Statistics and Probability of the American Statistical Association (ASA) and the NCTM to help individuals understand the discipline of statistics. The first, Statistics: A Guide to the Unknown (Tanur et al. 1972), was a set of essays on the application of statistics to everyday life, and written in nontechnical language to parents, teachers, and students. The second, Statistics by Example (Mosteller et al. 1973), was a set of lessons for secondary students that highlighted statistics and probability topics using everyday situations. These were some of the first attempts to showcase statistics and probability beyond calculating means of ‘sterilized’ data and selecting balls from urns.
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The Standards documents included recommendations to incorporate technology and enhance students’ understanding of statistics and probability. Suggested uses for technology included sorting large sets of data with spreadsheets and programming computers to simulate large numbers of trials of an experiment. Such tools may perform routine, time-consuming, or technically sophisticated tasks, thus allowing students to focus on interpreting the results of the process. Today’s dynamic statistics programs, such as Fathom (Key Curriculum Press Technologies 2005), are easier to use and provide even greater flexibility and functionality than preceding software packages.

The bold call for all students to learn statistics and probability was counterbalanced by the minimal attention devoted to statistics and probability in textbooks[1]. Instead, several groups produced supplemental curricula focused on statistics and probability (for example, Quantitative Literacy Series, Used Numbers, and Teach-Stat Activities). Collectively, these projects provided K-12 teachers with opportunities to engage their students in the statistical investigation process using relevant data. Bibliographic information for each of these is available in the appendix.
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[1] Jones (2004) found probability on only 2.2% of the pages of each popular middle-grades mathematics textbook series of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
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