ABSTRACT
In response to a Presidential directive and to the results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, the U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation (1998) released the joint report “An Action Strategy for Improving Achievement in Mathematics and Science.”The report documented that U.S. students, in comparison to students from higher achieving countries, begin to lose ground in their understanding of and interest in mathematics and science during the middle school grades. Along with algebra and geometry, data analysis was identified in the report as an area in which “far too many [students] have failed to develop a foundation [suitable for] the 21st century.”
