Preparing high school mathematics teachers to teach statistics

In recent years many national bodies concerned with American education have recommended integrating topics from probability, statistics, and data analysis into the K-12 mathematics curriculum. A variety of efforts are under way to carry out these recommendations, including the ASA's Quantitative Literacy Project. This report describes another such effort. A statistician and a mathematics educator offered current high school teachers a one-semester course that would give them a background knowledge of statistics to help them implement the recommendations. In designing the course, we unearthed some resources that might be of use to others. In offering the course, we experienced a variety of successes and failures that may be of interest to anyone else considering a similar course. These experiences led us to rethink how we would teach such a course in the future and to consider alternative approaches to teacher (re)training. We describe our experience and provide a list of suggestions we hope might aid in implementing the new curriculum recommendations.