Using Local Data to Enhance Quantitative Literacy
ANAC Summer Institute 2007
· Susanne Morgan, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Sociology
· Priscilla Quirk, M. A., Coordinator of Health Promotion and Substance Abuse Prevention
· Stephen Sweet, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Sociology
Ithaca College, Ithaca NY 14850
ANAC institutions collect data on multiple aspects of student experience through surveys such as NSSE, CIRP, and student health assessment. Integrating data analysis or quantitative literacy across the curriculum is an objective for most of us. In addition, teachers of courses related to numerical skills search for examples that will engage students. At Ithaca College, the Division for Student Affairs and Campus Life, Institutional Research, and the Center for Faculty Excellence collaborate to make data on our students available to faculty members who wish to develop exercises or modules in their own classes.
Center for Faculty Excellence, Ithaca College, http://www.ithaca.edu/cfe/teaching_DataInClassroom.htm
Sources of Student Data used by many institutions
· The Core Alcohol and Drug Survey Core Institute focuses primarily on alcohol and drug attitudes and behaviors and is a major resource for those using “social norming” approaches. http://www.siu.edu/departments/coreinst/public_html/
· The National College Health Assessment, National College Health Assessment includes additional health behaviors. http://www.acha-ncha.org/index.html
· The CIRP (Collaborative Institutional Research Program) administers several surveys of students, including one of incoming students from the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, which deals with attitudes on social and political issues. The survey can be downloaded from the link at the CIRP site. http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/freshman.html
· The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) includes questions on kinds of learning experiences, kinds of activities in and outside the classroom, and attitudes toward the institution. The surveys can be viewed through the link at the NSSE site at Indiana University. The project is directed by George Kuh. http://nsse.iub.edu/index.cfm
The Integrating Data Analysis project of the American Sociological Association and the National Science Foundation is described on the ASA web page (asanet.org) Departments section http://www.asanet.org/cs/root/topnav/sociology_depts/a_brief_summary_of_the_integrating_data_analysis_project_ida
The Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN), headed by demographer William Frey, is at http://www.ssdan.net/