HSS.ID.A.3Common CoreMathStatistics and ProbabilityGrades 9-12
HSS.ID.A.3: Interpreting Shape, Center, Spread and Outliers
In plain English: HSS.ID.A.3 is the Common Core statistics standard that asks students to interpret differences in shape, center and spread between data sets in the context of the data, and to account for the effect of outliers. Students describe skew and peaks, explain what differences mean for the situation, and judge how extreme values change the mean, median and spread. It is usually taught in Algebra I.
Interpret differences in shape, center, and spread in the context of the data sets, accounting for possible effects of extreme data points (outliers).
Common Core State Standards for Mathematics · Domain: Interpreting Categorical and Quantitative Data (ID) · Cluster: Summarize, represent, and interpret data on a single count or measurement variable Also written as HSS-ID.A.3 or S-ID.3 · Official standard
Students move from computing statistics to interpreting them. Given two or more data sets, they describe how the distributions differ in shape, in center and in spread, and say what each difference means in the situation the data come from. A comparison is not complete until it uses the context and the units: "a typical order arrives 5 minutes sooner" rather than "the median is 5 lower".
Students also account for extreme data points. They flag outliers with the 1.5 × IQR rule, measure how much an outlier moves the mean, median, IQR and standard deviation, and decide whether a value is an error to correct or a real observation to keep and report carefully.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Describe the shape of a distribution (symmetric, skewed left or right, uniform, bimodal) and explain what it says about the situation
Interpret differences in center and spread between data sets in context, with units
Identify outliers with the 1.5 × IQR rule
Explain and measure how an outlier affects the mean, median, IQR and standard deviation
Decide how to handle an outlier based on its likely cause, and report the data honestly
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
Describing a distribution by its center, spread and overall shape 6.SP.A.2
Judging the overlap of two distributions relative to their spread 7.SP.B.3
Computing quartiles and drawing box plots HSS.ID.A.1
Choosing mean and standard deviation or median and IQR by shape HSS.ID.A.2
Post the hours of video that nine friends streamed last week: 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 8, 9.
Warm-Up Prompt
"A tenth friend, home sick all week, streamed 41 hours. Predict how the mean and the median of the group change when you add that friend. Then compute both and see if you were right."
Students find that the mean jumps from about 6.4 to 9.9 hours while the median moves only from 6 to 6.5. Ask: "Does 9.9 hours describe a typical friend in this group?" Nine of the ten streamed less than that. Tell students that today they learn to interpret such differences in context, and to decide what to do when an extreme value appears.
Direct Instruction20 minutes
Part 1: Describing shape. Name the shape of a distribution before computing anything: symmetric (the two sides roughly mirror each other), skewed right (a long tail toward high values), skewed left (a long tail toward low values), uniform (bars of about equal height), and bimodal (two peaks, often two groups mixed together). Also look for gaps and clusters.
Part 2: Interpreting in context. A difference is interpreted when it is stated in the units and the situation of the data. "The median of B is 5 higher" is a calculation; "a typical delivery from B takes 5 minutes longer" is an interpretation.
Part 3: Outliers. Use the 1.5 × IQR rule to flag values that are unusually far from the middle half:
Equation: Both medians 30; IQR 5 for A and 20 for B
Two peaks
Commute times of 10 office workers: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 42, 45, 47, 50 (walkers and drivers from another town).
Equation: Mean 22.9 and median 9.5; no worker commutes close to 22.9 minutes
Interpret each example aloud. Bus: "Removing one very late bus lowers the mean delay by about 1.5 minutes, but the median by only half a minute." Sections: "Most of Section 1 did very well; a few low scores pull its mean below its median." Pizza: "A typical order from either place takes 30 minutes, but with B you might wait 15 minutes or 45." Commutes: "The group is really two groups, so report each group separately." Show Diagram 1 for the bus data and Diagram 2 for the two sections.
Guided Practice15 minutes
Pairs compare the minutes of exercise per day reported by 9 teens in each of two towns.
Minutes of exercise per day, two towns
Town
Minutes (ordered)
Town P
20, 25, 30, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 150
Town Q
15, 20, 25, 30, 30, 35, 40, 45, 55
Walk pairs through the steps. Town P: Q1 = 27.5, Q3 = 47.5, IQR = 20, upper fence 77.5, so 150 is an outlier. Town Q: Q1 = 22.5, Q3 = 42.5, IQR = 20, fences -7.5 and 72.5, so no outliers. The means (about 47.2 and 32.8) suggest that Town P's teens exercise far more, but the medians (35 and 30) show a much smaller gap. Without the 150, Town P's mean is about 34.4. Pairs write a final comparison, for example: "A typical teen in Town P exercises about 5 minutes more per day than one in Town Q, and the middle halves are equally spread; one Town P teen who exercises 150 minutes a day makes the mean misleading."
Independent Practice15 minutes
Students compare the daily high temperatures (°F) over 10 April days in two cities. City 1: 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68. City 2: 45, 52, 58, 63, 66, 70, 72, 75, 77, 82. They describe each shape, compute the median and IQR (City 1: 63 and 4; City 2: 68 and 17), check for outliers, and write a paragraph a traveler could use: City 2 is warmer on a typical day, but its weather swings much more, so a visitor should pack for both cool and warm days.
Closure5 minutes
Exit ticket: The numbers of minutes 8 students took to walk to school were 12, 14, 15, 15, 16, 17, 18, 45. (1) Is 45 an outlier? (Yes: IQR = 3 and the upper fence is 22.) (2) If 45 is removed, which changes more, the mean or the median? (The mean: 19 → about 15.3; the median: 15.5 → 15.) (3) Give one reason the 45 might be real, and say how you would report the data if it is.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Provide an outlier checklist with blanks: Q1 = __, Q3 = __, IQR = __, lower fence = __, upper fence = __, values beyond the fences: __
Give a word bank for shape (symmetric, skewed left, skewed right, uniform, bimodal, gap, cluster) with a small sketch next to each word
Offer the sentence frame "A typical ___ in ___ is about ___ [units] more/less than in ___, and the ___ in ___ vary more."
For Advanced Students
Ask students to find the smallest value that would be an outlier if added to the bus data, and explain why adding it also changes the fences
Have students compare the 1.5 × IQR rule with a "more than 2 standard deviations from the mean" rule on a skewed data set and explain which one flags more values
Ask students to find a news article that reports an average and argue whether a median would have been more honest
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
Strong answers name the difference, give its size in the units of the data, and say what it means for someone in the situation. Watch for students who describe only center, who say "skewed right" when the tail is on the left, or who delete every outlier automatically. When a student flags an outlier, ask about its cause before accepting a decision, and check that the final summary either uses resistant statistics or reports both versions.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Outlier Investigation
20 minGroups of 3-4
Each group receives three case cards, each with a small data set, one suspicious value and a short backstory. Groups test the value with the 1.5 × IQR rule, decide whether it is an error or real, and recommend how to report the data.
Case Cards
Card 1, heights of 9 students in centimeters: 158, 160, 162, 163, 165, 167, 170, 172 and one entry recorded as 1.68. Backstory: one student wrote a height in meters
Card 2, weekly earnings in dollars of 9 teens with part-time jobs: 60, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, 110, 400. Backstory: one teen worked full time during a school break
Card 3, 5K times in minutes for 9 running-club members: 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 38. Backstory: one runner finished while nursing a sprained ankle
Answer Key for the Teacher
Card 1: Q1 = 159, Q3 = 168.5, lower fence 144.75, so 1.68 is an outlier. It is an error: correct it to 168 cm
Card 2: Q1 = 77.5, Q3 = 105, upper fence 146.25, so 400 is an outlier. It is real: keep it and report the median, 90 dollars, and the IQR
Card 3: Q1 = 21.5, Q3 = 26.5, upper fence 34, so 38 is an outlier. It is real but unusual: report club results with and without it
Discussion Questions
Why is it wrong to delete a value only because it is an outlier?
In Card 2, what would a news story that reported the mean earnings get wrong?
2
Shape Stories
15-20 minPairs
Pairs match six histogram cards to six real situations and write one sentence per match explaining how the context produces the shape. The activity builds the habit of reading shape as information about the situation, not as a label.
Cards
Situations: (a) ages of everyone at a kindergarten family day; (b) scores on a very easy quiz; (c) annual household incomes in a city; (d) heights of adult women in one country; (e) the results of rolling a fair die 600 times; (f) finishing times in a city marathon
(a) H3, bimodal: children and parents. (b) H1, skewed left. (d) H2, symmetric. (e) H4, roughly uniform. (c) and (f) are both skewed right; accept H5 and H6 in either order if the sentence explains the long right tail, such as a few very high incomes or a few very slow finishers.
Modification for Distance Learning
Put the cards on a shared slide deck. Pairs drag each histogram next to a situation and type their sentence in a text box, then compare with another pair in a breakout room.
3
Write the Headline
20 minPairs, then gallery walk
Pairs act as data reporters. Each pair gets one scenario with summary statistics, writes a headline and a three-sentence story that interprets shape, center, spread and any outliers in context, and then reviews another pair's story with a checklist.
Scenarios
Scenario 1, range per charge in kilometers for two e-scooter models, 25 tests each: Model A five-number summary 18, 24, 27, 29, 31; Model B 12, 20, 27, 34, 40
Scenario 2, weekly volunteer hours for members of two clubs: Club X five-number summary 0, 1, 2, 4, 12 with mean 3.1; Club Y 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 with mean 4.0
Answer Key for the Teacher
Scenario 1: equal medians (27 km); IQR 5 km for A and 14 km for B. Headline idea: "Same typical range, but Model B is a gamble"
Scenario 2: Club X is skewed right (mean above median); medians 2 and 4 hours, IQRs 3 and 2 hours. Headline idea: "Club Y members typically give twice the time"
Checklist for Peer Review
Does the story mention shape, center and spread?
Are all numbers given with units and tied to the situation?
Does it say whether any value is extreme and how that affects the summary?
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
2 diagrams
Diagram 1: An Outlier and Its Effect on the Mean and Median
The bus delays as a dot plot. The dashed line is the upper fence, 11 minutes, so the 19-minute delay (red) is an outlier. The rows below show that removing it moves the mean (diamond) from 4.18 to 2.7 minutes but the median (square) only from 3 to 2.5.
Diagram 2: A Skewed-Left and a Symmetric Distribution
Box plots of the two sections' test scores, drawn to scale, with the means shown as diamonds. Section 1's long left whisker comes from a few low scores, which pull its mean (83.1) below its median (88). In Section 2 the mean and median are both 78.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
HSS.ID.A.3 Homework: Interpreting Differences and Outliers
Directions: Show your quartile and fence calculations, using the split-the-halves method from class. Every interpretation must use the context and the units of the data. When you find an outlier, say whether you think it is an error or a real value, and how that affects your summary.
Part 1: Outliers and Their Effects (Problems 1-3)
Prices in dollars of 11 used textbooks: 12, 15, 18, 18, 20, 22, 24, 25, 27, 30, 85. Use the 1.5 × IQR rule to test for outliers. Then find the mean and the median with and without any outlier, and say which statistic is more affected.
The weekly allowances in dollars of 8 friends are 10, 10, 12, 15, 15, 18, 20, 100. Test for outliers. Find the mean, the median and the standard deviation (divide by n) with and without the 100, and describe how each changes.
A student recorded the daily high temperatures (°F) for a week in July as 88, 91, 90, 910, 87, 93, 89. What probably happened? Correct the data, then compare the mean of the recorded values with the mean of the corrected values.
Part 2: Interpreting Shape, Center and Spread (Problems 4-5)
Two classes of 30 students took the same test. Frequencies for the bins 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, 80-89, 90-99: Class A: 1, 2, 5, 9, 13. Class B: 4, 7, 9, 7, 3. Describe the shape of each distribution, find the bin that contains each median, and explain what the differences say about how the two classes did.
Two coffee machines in a cafeteria are set to 165°F. Over 40 drinks, Machine A had median 165°F and IQR 4°F; Machine B had median 166°F and IQR 15°F. Interpret the difference in center and the difference in spread for a customer.
Part 3: A Complete Comparison (Problem 6)
Hours of sleep on a school night for 10 ninth graders: 6, 7, 7, 7.5, 8, 8, 8.5, 9, 9, 9.5. For 10 twelfth graders: 4, 5.5, 6, 6, 6.5, 7, 7, 7.5, 8, 11. Find the five-number summary of each group, test both for outliers, and write a paragraph comparing shape, center and spread in context. Explain how any outlier affects your comparison.
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
No Credit (0 pts)
Outlier Test
Quartiles, IQR and both fences correct; outliers correctly flagged
One calculation error
Fences missing or incorrect
Effect of Outliers
Statistics with and without the outlier correct, and the change explained
Correct values without explanation
Missing
Shape, Center and Spread
All three described and compared
Two of the three
One or none
Interpretation in Context
Uses units and the situation; handles outliers based on their cause
Some context, or cause not considered
Numbers only
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
Work through the questions in order. Your score updates as you answer, and Reset quiz clears everything so you or your students can try again. Outliers are values beyond Q1 - 1.5 × IQR or Q3 + 1.5 × IQR.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A data set has Q1 = 20 and Q3 = 30. Using the 1.5 × IQR rule, which of these values is an outlier?
Answer: D
IQR = 30 - 20 = 10, so the fences are 20 - 15 = 5 and 30 + 15 = 45. Only 47 lies beyond a fence. Choice B sits exactly on the upper fence, which does not count as beyond it, and choice C is above the lower fence of 5.
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
An outlier is removed from a data set. Which statistic is likely to change the least?
Answer: A
The median depends only on the middle of the ordered list, so removing one extreme value shifts it by at most half a step. The mean and standard deviation use the size of every value, so one extreme value affects them strongly. The range depends directly on the extreme value, so choice D can change the most.
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
The mean number of hours per week that a group of teens spend gaming is 12, and the median is 7. What is the most likely shape of the distribution?
Answer: B
A mean well above the median means a few large values are pulling the mean up, which is a right skew: a few teens game many hours. Choice C would put the mean below the median.
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
The data are 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 30. If the value 30 is removed, what happens to the mean?
Answer: C
With 30 the mean is 57 / 7 ≈ 8.14; without it the mean is 27 / 6 = 4.5, a decrease of about 3.6. Choice D confuses removing a value from the data with subtracting it from the mean.
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Two brands of light bulbs both have a median lifetime of 1,200 hours. Brand X has an IQR of 100 hours and Brand Y has an IQR of 400 hours. Which interpretation is best?
Answer: A
Equal medians mean equal typical lifetimes, and the larger IQR means the middle half of Brand Y's bulbs is spread over a 400-hour window instead of a 100-hour one. Choices B and C read a difference in spread as a difference in center.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In a retirement community, most residents retired between ages 62 and 67, and a few retired in their 40s. How would you describe the shape of the retirement ages?
Answer: D
The few early retirements form a long tail toward the smaller ages, so the distribution is skewed to the left. The skew is named for the direction of the tail; choice A would need a few residents who retired unusually late.
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A histogram of the heights of everyone at a family picnic has two clear peaks, one near 120 cm and one near 170 cm. What is the best interpretation?
Answer: B
Two peaks usually signal two groups mixed together, here children and adults. Choice C is the trap: the mean falls between the peaks, near heights that few people at the picnic have. Peaks are where many values are, so they cannot be outliers.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A data set has Q1 = 40 and Q3 = 52. What is the lower fence for outliers?
Answer: C
IQR = 52 - 40 = 12, and 1.5 × 12 = 18, so the lower fence is 40 - 18 = 22. Choice B subtracts the IQR without multiplying by 1.5. Choice D subtracts half the IQR, and choice A subtracts 1.5 × IQR from 30 instead of from Q1.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
One value is removed from a data set. The mean drops from 50 to 45, and the median stays at 44. What can you conclude about the removed value?
Answer: A
Removing a value lowers the mean only if that value was above the mean. With n values, the removed value is 50 + 5(n - 1), which is more than 50; with 10 values it would be 95. The median barely notices one value at the far end, which is why it stayed at 44. Choice B would make the mean rise, not fall, and choice D would leave the mean at 50.
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which values are outliers in 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 25 by the 1.5 × IQR rule?
Answer: B
Q1 is the median of 2, 5, 6, 7, which is 5.5, and Q3 is the median of 9, 10, 12, 25, which is 11. IQR = 5.5, so the fences are 5.5 - 8.25 = -2.75 and 11 + 8.25 = 19.25. Only 25 is beyond a fence. Choice C treats the minimum as an outlier, but 2 is well above -2.75.
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Five-number summaries: Set A: 10, 12, 14, 16, 18. Set B: 10, 11, 12, 14, 30. Which statement about shape is correct?
Answer: C
In A, each quarter of the data covers 2 units, so it is symmetric. In B, the quarters widen toward the top (1, 1, 2 and 16 units) and the right whisker is very long, which is a right skew. Choice D mistakes the direction: the long part is on the high side.
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
The value 100 is added to the data set 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Which statistic changes the most?
Answer: D
The median moves from 12 to 12.5, the IQR stays at 3 and Q1 moves from 10.5 to 11. The standard deviation jumps from about 1.4 to about 32.8, because it is built from distances to the mean and 100 is very far from the mean.
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
The median commute is 18 minutes for students at School A and 25 minutes at School B. Which sentence interprets the difference correctly in context?
Answer: A
A median describes a typical value, so the comparison is about typical students, in the units of the data (minutes). Choice B claims something about every student, which a median cannot show. Choice C changes the units from time to distance.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In City A the mean home price is far above the median, and in City B the mean and median are close. Which is most likely true?
Answer: B
A mean far above the median is the sign of a right skew: a few very expensive homes pull the mean up. Choice C would pull the mean below the median. Nothing in the statement says which city is more expensive overall, so choice A does not follow.
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
Use the 1.5 × IQR rule to find any outliers in 14, 16, 17, 18, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 40.
There are 10 values. The lower half 14, 16, 17, 18, 18 gives Q1 = 17, and the upper half 19, 20, 21, 22, 40 gives Q3 = 21, so IQR = 4. Fences: 17 - 6 = 11 and 21 + 6 = 27. Only 40 is an outlier.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
In the data set 30, 32, 33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 41, 90, the value 90 is an outlier. Find the mean and the median with and without it. Which one changes more?
With 90: mean = 374 / 9 ≈ 41.6, median = 36. Without 90: mean = 284 / 8 = 35.5, median = (35 + 36) / 2 = 35.5. The mean drops by about 6.1 and the median by only 0.5, so the mean changes more.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
Goals scored per game by two soccer teams over 9 games: Team A: 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5. Team B: 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 6, 8. Compare the shape, center and spread in context.
Shape: A is symmetric around 3; B is skewed right, with most games at 0-2 goals and a few high-scoring games. Center: the median is 3 goals for A and 1 goal for B, so A typically scores 2 more goals per game. Spread: the IQR is 4 - 2 = 2 for A and 4.5 - 0.5 = 4 for B, so B's scoring is less predictable. Neither team has an outlier: B's upper fence is 10.5.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
A startup advertises that its "average salary" is $120,000. Nine of its 10 employees earn between $50,000 and $60,000. Explain what is going on and which statistic would describe a typical salary better.
The tenth salary, probably the founder's, must be extremely high to raise the mean that far: the ten salaries add up to $1,200,000, so if nine of them total at most $540,000, the tenth is at least $660,000. That one outlier pulls the mean above what 9 of the 10 people earn. The median, which lies between $50,000 and $60,000, describes a typical employee.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
Explain why the IQR is barely affected by one extreme value, while the range can change a lot.
The IQR is Q3 - Q1, and the quartiles depend on the middle half of the ordered data, so one value at the far end moves them little or not at all. The range is maximum - minimum, so it depends directly on the most extreme value: making that value larger makes the range larger by the same amount.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
Test scores for 9 students: 12, 71, 74, 76, 78, 80, 81, 83, 85. Is 12 an outlier? Compare the mean with and without it and say which summary best describes how the class did.
Q1 = (71 + 74) / 2 = 72.5 and Q3 = (81 + 83) / 2 = 82, so IQR = 9.5 and the lower fence is 72.5 - 14.25 = 58.25. 12 is an outlier. Mean with it: 640 / 9 ≈ 71.1; without it: 628 / 8 = 78.5. The median, 78, and the mean without the outlier both describe the class better; the teacher should also find out why one score was so low, for example an unfinished test.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
06
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does HSS.ID.A.3 mean?
HSS.ID.A.3 means students explain what differences between data sets tell us about the real situation, looking at shape, center and spread, and taking outliers into account. It is the interpreting step of the cluster: HSS.ID.A.1 builds the displays, HSS.ID.A.2 chooses and computes the statistics, and HSS.ID.A.3 turns them into conclusions in context.
Is HSS.ID.A.3 taught in Algebra 1?
Yes, usually in the one-variable statistics unit of Algebra I, alongside HSS.ID.A.1 and HSS.ID.A.2. Some schools revisit it in a statistics elective. The mathematics is light; the challenge is clear written interpretation.
How do you decide if a value is an outlier?
The usual school rule is the 1.5 × IQR rule: a value is an outlier if it lies more than 1.5 IQRs below Q1 or above Q3. It is a convention, not a law of nature, so a value just inside a fence can still deserve attention. Graphing tools that draw "modified" box plots use the same rule and show outliers as separate points.
Should outliers be removed from the data?
Only if they are errors. A mistyped or impossible value should be corrected or removed, with a note saying so. A real value, even an extreme one, is part of the story and should stay. In that case use resistant statistics such as the median and IQR, or report the results with and without the outlier so readers can see its effect.
What does "in the context of the data sets" mean?
It means the conclusion is about the situation, not only about numbers. Instead of "set B has a larger IQR", write "delivery times from restaurant B are less predictable: the middle half of its deliveries spans 20 minutes, compared with 5 minutes for restaurant A." Name the variable, the units and the groups.
Which shapes should students be able to describe?
Symmetric, skewed left, skewed right, uniform and bimodal, plus gaps and clusters. Students should also be able to explain a shape from the context: waiting times are often skewed right because they cannot go below zero but can occasionally be very long, and two peaks often mean two groups were mixed together.
How is HSS.ID.A.3 different from HSS.ID.A.2?
HSS.ID.A.2 is about choosing and computing the right statistics for comparing groups. HSS.ID.A.3 asks what the differences mean and adds two ideas: shape as something to compare in its own right, and the effect of extreme values on each statistic. In practice the two standards are taught together, with HSS.ID.A.3 as the payoff.
What mistakes do students make with skew?
Naming the direction wrongly is common: the skew is named for the side of the long tail, not the side where most data sit. Another is thinking that skew means outliers; a distribution can be strongly skewed with no value beyond the fences. Have students trace the tail with a finger and say where it points.
How is this standard tested?
Test items typically show two displays or two sets of summary statistics and ask which conclusion is supported, or ask how a statistic changes when a value is added or removed. On the digital SAT, such questions appear in the Problem-Solving and Data Analysis domain. Constructed-response items reward answers that mention center, spread and context.
How can teachers connect HSS.ID.A.3 to real life?
Use reports that give an "average": salaries, home prices, response times or sports statistics. Ask students whether the mean or the median was reported, what the shape of the data probably is, and whether a few extreme values could be driving the headline. This leads directly to HSS.IC.B.6, evaluating reports based on data.
07
Related Standards
6 standards
These standards connect to HSS.ID.A.3: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.
Before this lesson
6.SP.A.2Prerequisite
Understand that a data distribution can be described by its center, spread and shape
