Current challenges in statistics: large-lecture courses

Each semester approximately 80% of the students taught by the Florida State University Department of Statistics are enrolled in STA 3014: Fundamental Business Statistics. During the academic year this course is taught in large lecture sections of 250 students each. It is either the only statistics course or one of two statistics courses taken in their undergraduate career for probably 90% of these students. A similar situation exists in many statistics departments around the nation.

These large introductory courses offer us the opportunity to introduce the power of statistics to a large fraction of our future business leaders. In the past it appears that this opportunity has often been missed. In fact, some suggest that these courses help contribute to the general public's negative attitude toward statistics courses, the discipline of statistics, and statisticians.

Hence, I propose that one of the current challenges in statistics is the challenge of improving the quality of these courses so that statistics may contribute to the improvement of quality and productivity in the United States, a vital national issue. In this paper I report on my experiences in grappling with this challenge in STA 3014.     

Reviews and Notices

Abstract

Medical Statistics of the Negro: The Surgical Peculiarities of the American Negro. By Rudolph Matas, M.D., Professor of Surgery, Medical Department of Tulane University of Louisiana. Reviewed by Frederick L. Hoffman.

Mulhall's Statistics: Industries and wealth of Nations. By Michael G. Mulhall. Longmans, Green & Co. London, New York, and Bombay. 1896. Pp.451.

New York Bureau of Municipal Statistics.

Boston Department of Statistics.

Memorials.

Washington Meetings.

Municipal Statistical Offices.     

Some Uses for Distribution-Fitting Software in Teaching Statistics

Statistics courses now make extensive use of menu-driven, interactive computer software. This article presents some insight as to how a new class of PC-based statistical software, called “distribution-fitting” software, can be used in teaching various courses in statistics.     

The second fifteen years: a continuation of the chronicle of the department of statistics at the florida state university

The history of the Department of Statistics at The Florida State University is traced through its second fifteen years of existence.     

Computer Algebra Systems: DERIVE®

Seeing Through Statistics.; Jessica M. Utts. Belmont, CA: Duxbury Press, 1996. xvi + 464 pp. $40.95. Reviewed by Sheila O'Leary Weaver

Statistics and Data Analysis, 2nd ed.; Andrew F. Siegel and Charles J. Morgan. New York: John Wiley, 1996. xiv + 635 pp. $68.95. Reviewed by Jennifer Hoeting

Statistics Principles and Methods (3rd ed.).; Richard A. Johnson and Gouri K. Bhattacharyya. New York: John Wiley, 1996. xv + 720 pp. $70.95. Reviewed by Linda C. Malone

Engineering Statistics: The Industrial Experience.; Bernard Ostle, Kenneth V. Turner, Jr., Charles R. Hicks, and Gayle W. Mcelrath. Belmont, CA: Duxbury Press, 1996. xiv + 568 pp. $62.95. Reviewed by Anne M. Dougherty

Introductory Statistics.; Sheldon M. ROSS. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996. 807 pp. $63.59. Reviewed by Youn-Min Chou

Workshop Statistics.; Allan J. ROSSMAN. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1996. xx + 452 pp. $26.95. Reviewed by Jonathan D. Cryer

Exploring Probability and Statistics with Spreadsheets.; J. T. Callender and R. Jackson. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 19xx. viii + 236 pp. $36.00. Reviewed by K. L. D. Gunawardena

NCSS (6.0.21 for Windows); Available from NCSS Statistical Software, 329 North 1000 East, Kaysville, UT 84037. For five or more student copies the cost is $25 for each set of software disks and $30 for each set of manuals. Reviewed by Michael Nabel

DASL—The Data and Story Library; This collection of datasets and stories designed for use in statistics courses is available on the Internet at http://www.stat.cmu.edu/DASL/. Reviewed by Jeffrey A. Witmer

StatLib: An Archive for Statistical Software, Datasets, and Information: StatLib is a system for distributing statistical software, datasets, and information by electronic mail, FTP, gopher, and WWW Although StatLib is not primarily intended as a resource for teachers, much of its contents are of interest when teaching statistics. StatLib is free and available via the Internet. Reviewed by Charles Kooperberg     

论作为一级学科的统计学——兼评社会经济统计学原理的科学位置和课程内容

 1992年11月，国家技术监督局发布新的学科分类与编码，把统计学列作一级学科。同时有的学者提出建立“大统计学”学科体系的倡议。而对”大统计学“究竟指的是什么理解并不一致。本文旨在阐明笔者对这个问题的认识。     

行政记录和政府统计的多视角研究

在社会经济统计中,行政记录的重要性日益被统计部门重视,其开发使用也成为学术研究热点。通过研究现有文献,本文系统综述了行政记录和政府统计之间的渊源、行政记录的优点、使用行政记录应注意的问题、行政记录在国内外政府统计中的使用实践和趋势以及使用行政记录改善政府统计的方向.     

An alternative form of the Watson efficiency

Watson [1951. Serial correlation in regression analysis. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Experimental Statistics, North Carolina State College, Raleigh] introduced a relative efficiency, which is often called the Watson efficiency in literatures, to measure the inefficiency of the least squares in linear regression models. The Watson efficiency is defined by determinant, but we shall show by two examples that such a criterion does not always work well in some cases. In this paper, an alternative form based on Euclidean norm of the Watson efficiency is proposed and some examples are given to illustrate superiority of the new relative efficiency.     

Asymptotic properties of maximum weighted likelihood estimators

The relevance weighted likelihood method was introduced by Hu and Zidek (Technical Report No. 161, Department of Statistics, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 1995) to formally embrace a variety of statistical procedures for trading bias for precision. Their approach combines all relevant information through a weighted version of the likelihood function. The present paper is concerned with the asymptotic properties of a class of maximum weighted likelihood estimators that contains those considered by Hu and Zidek (Technical Report No. 161, Department of Statistics, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 1995, in: Ahmed, S.E. Reid, N. (Eds.), Empirical Bayes and Likelihood Inference, Springer, New York, 2001, p. 211). Our results complement those of Hu (Can. J. Stat. 25 (1997) 45). In particular, we invoke a different asymptotic paradigm than that in Hu (Can. J. Stat. 25 (1997) 45). Moreover, our adaptive weights are allowed to depend on the data.     

Reviews and Miscellany

abstract

Notes on Vital Statistics: Ville de Bruxelles. Service d'hygiène, son organisation, et son mode de fonctionnement. By Dr. E. Janssens. Brussels, 1898. Pp, 52; diagram and plates.

Notes on Vital Statistics: Marriages, Naissances et Décès en Suisse, 1871-90. Deuxième Partie: les Naissances. Published by the Bureau of Statistics, Federal Department of the Interior. Berne: 1897.

Notes on Vital Statistics: The Therapeutische Monatschefte for September, 1898, contains an an article on Serum Statistics by Dr. Josef von Körösy, Director of Municipal Statistics of Budapest.

Notes on Vital Statistics: Fifth Annual Report upon the Births, Marriages, Divorces, and Deaths in the State of Maine for the year ending December 31, 1896. Augusta, 1898. Pp. 238.

Labor Inquiries: Labor Copartnership. Notes of a Visit to Coöperative Workshops, Factories, and Homes in Great Britain and Ireland, in which Employer, Employee, and Consumer share in Ownership, Management, and Results. By Henry Demerest Lloyd. Illustrated. New York. 1898. Pp. 351.

Finance and Commerce: The Bureau of Statistics of the United States Treasury Department has published a useful compendium entitled National, State, Private, and Savings Banks; Bonds, Paper Currency and Coin; Production and Value of Precious Metals; Coinage, etc., 1789–1898.

Finance and Commerce: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Kansas Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics, 1897. W. L. A. Johnson, Commissioner. Topeka, 1898; pp. 400.

Miscellaneous: Die Zahl im Kriege. Statistische Daten aus der neueren Kreigsgeschichte in graphischer Darstellung. By Otto Berndt. Publishers, Freytag and Berudt. Vienna, 1897. Pp. 174; folded map.

Miscellaneous: A Statistical Account of the Seven Colonies of Australasia, 1897-98. T. A. Coghlan, Government Statistician of New South Wales. Seventh issue. Sydney, 1898. Pp. xiii, 543.     

The Mean is within One Standard Deviation of Any Median

Statistics education is often restricted to teaching the mathematical equations and theories that form the foundation of statistical analysis. It can be argued, however, that the interpretation of the analysis and the communication of the results are equally important. The interdisciplinary role of statisticians requires us to examine real-life problems critically and communicate analytical results to nonstatisticians in a clear and concise manner. This article discusses the importance of including writing assignments as a routine part of statistics courses and presents benefits of the increased use of writing.     

立足财经类院校培养管理型统计学专业人才

高校(本科)的统计学专业,在办学方向、培养目标和课程体系设置等等方面,应允许其各具特色。古今中外,社会经济领域的统计具有明显的管理特征。财经类院校应培养社会各行业所需要的管理型统计学专业人才,其培养目标和课程设置应密切结合统计学与经济学、管理学等财经类学科的相互联系和相互渗透现状和发展趋势来制定,加强学生管理能力和专业技能的培养。     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Handbook of Mathematical Tables. First Edition.
David, F. N., and Barton, D. E. Combinatorial Chance. 1962.
Rasmussen, Knud, with Sandilands, M. M. Production Function Analyses of British and Irish Farm Accounts. Department of Agricultural Economics
Ractliffe, J. F. Elements of Mathematical Statistics.
Weiss, L. Statistical Decision Theory.     

A Survey of the Teaching of Statistics in M.B.A. Programs

A survey of business schools was conducted to obtain information about the current state of the teaching of business statistics to students enrolled in M.B.A. degree programs. The survey was undertaken for and presented at a June 1986 conference on “Making Statistics More Effective in Schools of Business,” held at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. Information was elicited concerning both the required statistics sequence and elective statistics courses for M.B.A. students, as well as computer usage in these courses. This article summarizes the information obtained from the survey.     

现有非金融资产所有权转移费用处理方式刍议

一、1 993年ＳＮＡ推荐的处理方式1 现有资产1993年ＳＮＡ认为某些资产 ,尤其是住宅和其他建筑物的使用年限可能长达 5 0年或更长时间 ,在他们最终报废、拆毁或丢弃之前 ,其所有权可能要多次易手。为了将现有资产与新资产区别开来 ,1993年ＳＮＡ对现有资产作出了如下定义 :“一件货物的所有权一经由其原来的生产者或进口者转让给使用或打算使用它的常住单位 ,这件货物就成了现有货物。这样 ,现有固定资产是至少已经被一个用户获得 ,或者为自己的使用而被生产 ,因此在本核算期或者以前某个核算期的某个比较早的时点上 ,其价值已经至少包括在…     

On the invariance principle for exchangeable random variables

Summary Weak limit results for exchangeable arrays can be obtained via a martingale approach. This note explains why the conditions in the general martingale results simplify to ones on the fulln sum in the case of exchangeable random variables. Part of the work was completed while visiting the Department of Statistics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Pollard, A. H. A Service Course in Statistics.
Penǵ, K. C. The Design and Analysis of Scientijic Experiments.
Neyman, J. A Selection of Early Statistical Papers of J. Neyman.
Chiang, C. L. Introduction to Stochastic Processes in Biostatistics.
Jenkins, G. M., and Watts, D. G. Spectral Analysis and its Applications.
Harris, Bernard (Editor). Spectral Analysis of Time Serie. Proceedings of an Advanced Seminar conducted by the Mathematics Research Center, U.S. Army, and the Statistics Department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, October 3–5, 1966.
Sarkadi, K., and Vincze, I. (Eds.). Studies in Mathematical Statistics: Theory and Applications.
Pearson, Karl (Ed.). Tables of the Incomplete Beta-Function (with a new Introduction by E. S. Pearson and N. L. Johnson).
Kendall, M. G., and Doiǵ, A. G. Bibliography of Statistical Literature: pre-1940 with supplements to the volumes for 1940-49 and 1950-58.
Albert, A. E., and Gardner, L. A., Jr. Stochastic Approximation and Nonlinear Regression.     

Reviews

Books reviewed in this article:
Common Errors in Statistics (and How to Avoid Them). 2d Edition Philip I. Good and James W. Hardin
Statistical thinking in busineess, 2nd Edition J Bobe E J A John, D Whitaker & D G Johnson
Mathematical Statistics with Applications. A S Kapadia, W Chan and L Moyé
The Cambridge Dictionary of Statistics. 3rd Edition. B. S. Everitt
The Oxford Dictionary of Statistical Terms. 6th edition Y. Dodge     

打造国家统计信息系统平台

国家统计局统一的信息化平台能实现数据的直报,从而大大降低了数据失真的可能性。面临资金的不足,国家统计信息系统的建设采用策略是先由各个省份自己建设,然后再实施各省平台的统一。基于这样的背景,本文通过对部分省市的统计信息系统特点进行了介绍和分析,指出了要打造国家统计信息系统大平台所必须具备的五大特点。