Applying Design-Based Research Findings to Improve the Common Core State Standards for Data and Statistics in Grades 4–6

Abstract The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics have a widespread impact on children’s statistical learning opportunities. The Grade 6 standards are particularly ambitious in the goals they set. In this critique, experiences helping children work toward the Grade 6 Common Core statistics expectations are used in conjunction with previous research to identify ways in which the Grades 4–6 standards might be supplemented or revised to help maximize learning. It is suggested that opportunities for children to perceive datasets as aggregates and to draw reasonable conclusions about statistical data by attending to context should be purposefully introduced in Grades 4–5. Currently, the Common Core does not have explicit learning standards for these activities in fourth and fifth grade. It is also suggested that teachers help students question their natural tendencies to focus extensively on the mode when summarizing data. The current standards do not specifically mention the mode. Revising or supplementing the Common Core in the suggested ways holds potential to make the Grade 6 statistical learning standards more attainable for children and to help teachers better anticipate the statistical thinking tendencies that are likely to emerge during classroom discourse.