6.SP.1: Recognize a Statistical Question
Also written as 6.SP.A.1 and CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.SP.A.1 · Cluster: Develop understanding of statistical variability.
The Official Wording
Recognize a statistical question as one that anticipates variability in the data related to the question and accounts for it in the answers. For example, "How old am I?" is not a statistical question, but "How old are the students in my school?" is a statistical question because one anticipates variability in students' ages.
Common Core State Standards, Grade 6, Statistics & Probability · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026
What 6.SP.1 Means in Plain English
Sixth graders tell a question that needs data from one that does not. “How long was my homework last night?” has one answer. “How long do 6th graders at our school spend on homework?” gets a different answer from every student, and that expected variety makes it statistical.
This is the doorway to the whole strand. A statistical question produces a data set, which has a center, spread and shape (6.SP.2) and gets displayed as a dot plot or histogram (6.SP.4). In 7th grade students answer such questions about a population from a random sample (7.SP.1).
6.SP.1 I Can Statements
- I can tell whether a question expects one answer or many.
- I can explain why a question is or is not statistical.
- I can rewrite a one-answer question so it needs data.
6.SP.1 Worked Example
Four questions about homework, flagpoles and basketball players, each run through the same test: would the answers vary?
Which of these are statistical questions? (a) How many minutes did I spend on homework last night? (b) How many minutes do 6th graders at our school spend on homework each night? (c) How tall is the flagpole? (d) How tall are the players on the basketball team?
- Ask the test question: if I collected answers, would they vary? For (a), there is one person and one night, so one answer.(a) One answer: 45 min. Not statistical.
- For (b), different students give different numbers, and the question expects that.(b) Many answers: 20, 45, 60, 30, ... Statistical.
- For (c), measure the flagpole once and you are done. Measuring it again does not change it.(c) One answer: 9 m. Not statistical.
- For (d), twelve players means twelve heights, and the answer describes all of them.(d) Many answers: 150 cm to 178 cm. Statistical.
- Rewrite a one-answer question so it anticipates variability: ask about a group instead of one thing.How tall are the flagpoles at the schools in our district?
Check it: For each statistical question you could draw a dot plot of the answers. For the other two there would be only one dot to draw.
Common Mistakes with 6.SP.1
Thinking “hard” means statistical
“What is 847 × 36?” is statistical because it takes work
Try this: Separate effort from variability: the product has exactly one answer no matter who computes it, so no data set is needed.
Any question about a group counts
“How many students are in our class?” is statistical because it is about many people
Try this: Ask whether each student would give a different answer. Everyone says 27, so the count is a single fact, not a distribution.
Rewriting without a population
“How old is my dog?” rewritten as “How old is my neighbor’s dog?”
Try this: Point the question at a population, the dogs in our neighborhood, and ask what the answers would look like gathered in one list.
Where 6.SP.1 Fits
Practice 6.SP.1
Quick Check
- Is “How many pets does our class have in total?” a statistical question?
- Is “How far do students in our grade travel to school?” a statistical question? Why?
- Rewrite “How many books did I read this summer?” as a statistical question.