Probability and statistics are powerful weapons that can help people make good decisions, but that can also be used to wreak havoc. This paper is the first in a series designed to provide examples to students of how statistics can be used and misused to mislead the public and result in poor...

Recently, President Obama has proposed that the Department of Education start ranking colleges based on “value.” School rankings have, for some time, formed an important component of students’ decisions on which institutions to attend. However, as we illustrate in this paper, such rankings...