Topic: How many have health care in your county? Source for research: A new Census Bureau report.

Here is the link for Al’s article: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=2&aid=152003

A timely issue that requires research.

But there is still a lot people can do on their own using the American Community Survey portion. Students can break down local communities by ethnic groups, income, age, education, etc.

One example I showed my students was the high college educated level in Fairfax County (I think it was about 90 percent) AND the high income level. Then I pulled up another county with a much lower college education level and compared that to the income in that county.

We then discussed if this is a one to one relationship. I made the students figure out other ways they can start with those figures and then find additional data to look at the assumptions one might make and how those assumptions are right and wrong.

Some things are so simple, like margin of error for polls. Check out this LA Times fishing expedition in an effort (it seems to me) to prove with numbers which candidate “won” a debate. Spoiler alert: Obama’s “lead” increased from 48% to 49%.

Hold the presses. No mention of the MOE in the story. I had to click on an image to see full poll results, then scan through the tiny type below to find a 3% MOE. Statistically, McCain is just as likely to have “won” as Obama.

This is a non-story that should have been axed at the copy desk.

With reckless ignorance to your students level of expertise, I find I’m routinely troubled by reporters missing the boat when it comes to backing up claims with some actual numbers.

Quick example would be the story about voter registration being up. It can be done with anecdotes and some overall numbers (typically from a mouthpiece) but would be better done by actually getting the data and see how much it’s up, where it’s up, who’s making it go up, etc.

What about giving them several story assignments and ask them to identify which ones would be capable of being CARed and how they would do it? Data skills are great, but they can be taught. Knowing when they should be used is a harder thing to learn, IMO.

Here’s an assignment: pick a political candidate’s factual assertion (about, say, the percentage of small businesses that would be affected by a tax hike) and have them (a) run down the underlying data that on which it is based; (b) derive at least two independent factual statements (not necessarily contradicting the original claim); and (c) evaluate the opposing candidate’s counterclaim in the same fashion.

Now, if you could only find some politicians that are making various claims that you could check …