Practical Statistics for Educators

Book excerpt: Practical Statistics for Educators, Seventh Edition, is a clear and easy-to follow book written specifically for education students in introductory statistics and action research courses. It is also an invaluable resource and guidebook for educational practitioners who wish to study their own settings and for those involved in program evaluation. The book’s focus is on essential concepts in educational statistics, understanding when to use various statistical tests, and learning how to interpret results. This book introduces education students and practitioners to the use of parametric and nonparametric statistics in education, and basic concepts in statistics are explained in clear language. Formulas and equations are used sparingly, and readers are not required to do any computations. The book also includes a discussion of testing, test score interpretation, reliability, and validity. A chapter on survey design and analysis provides readers with examples that demonstrate how the different statistical tests introduced in the book can be used to analyze survey data. An extensive study guide at the end of the book provides an opportunity to review all the information that was presented in the book; the guide includes an answer key with a clear explanation of each correct answer. Throughout this text, examples taken from the field of education serve to illustrate the various concepts, terms, statistical tests, and data interpretations.