Researchers Paul Cobb and Kay McClain have built a research project that addresses a gap in the middle school mathematics curriculum. THey write, "Our decision to focus on statistics in middle school reflects the increasingly central role of statistical reasonsin in both work-related activities and in informed citizenship. Several research reviews reveal that statistics typically receives, at best, limited attention at the middle school level and that instruction usually focuses on computational and procedural aspects (e.g., calculating means) at the expense of conceptual understanding (e.g., developing notions of representativeness when comparing data sets). Further, exploratory data analysis in which data is created and interrogated - to answer realistic questions or to make decisions - is rarely the focus of attention."

The NCISLA project builds on five years of middle-school classroom design experiments, in which the collaborating researchers and teachers tested and revised instructional sequneces and computer mini-tools for students to learn statistical data analysis. At the same time, the project researchers collaborated with teachers' on their professional development. Using the instructional resources built to coincide with students' mathematical learning trajectories, the researchers are engaging teachers in investigations of students' learning of statistics and seeking to determine if the instructional resources and mini-tools can serve as a primary support for teachers' generative professional development. Research finding positively reflect students' capacities to engage in challenging statistical reasoning in the middle grades.

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