LOCUS: Assessing conceptual understanding of statistics

Abstract

The Levels of Conceptual Understanding in Statistics (LOCUS) assessments are an NSF-funded (DRL-1118168) family of assessments designed to measure conceptual – rather than procedural – understanding in statistics and are aligned with the American Statistical Association’s GAISE Framework (Franklin et al., 2007). This paper introduces the LOCUS assessments with emphasis on their potential for research use. An overview of the development process, including the validity argument for their use with s tudents in grades 6-12, college students, and teachers is provided, along with sample items and findings about students' current knowledge. LOCUS is freely available at http://locus.statisticseducation.org.

Douglas Whitaker

Associate Professor of Statistics