Lena Marsh
Founder and lead instructorA survey statistician for a county health department before Ridgeway. Writes and teaches Modules 1 to 3.
- Office hours odd weeks, Thursdays
We teach statistics in order
Ridgeway is a small online school with one course and two instructors. We'd rather teach one subject carefully than many quickly.
Why Ridgeway exists
For eleven years Lena Marsh explained survey results to people who had to make a decision by Friday. They were smart, careful people, and most of them froze at a p-value.
The problem was rarely the math. It was the order. Most courses start with probability rules, then distributions, then tests, and the questions people actually have, like "is this difference real?", arrive in week eleven, after everyone has quit.
In 2021 Lena ran a six-evening workshop at a public library that started from data people already had: bus delays, library loans, the weather. It worked well enough that she wrote it down. That outline is still the backbone of the course: describe, picture, estimate, then test.
Tomás Reyes joined in 2023 after nine years teaching introductory statistics at a community college. He rewrote the second half of the course around one rule: no formula without a worked example, and no worked example without a practice question right after it.
If a learner gets a question wrong, the explanation is the lesson. We write those first.
Ridgeway in numbers
- first workshop
- 2021
- Six evenings at a public library
- cohorts taught
- 14
- Never more than 40 people each
- instructors
- 2
- Who also write every lesson
- rewrites of Module 3
- 3
- Probability is the hard one
How the course grew
Every change came from a question learners kept asking in office hours.
- Done
Six evenings at Carver Library
Twenty-two people, one projector and the city's bus delay data.
- Done
The first online cohort
Modules 1 to 3 as short written lessons, with a live session every Tuesday.
- Done
Tomás writes Modules 4 to 6
Sampling, estimation and relationships, each with practice after every idea.
- Done
Self-paced access opens
The same lessons for people who can't keep a Tuesday evening free.
- In progress
Python notebooks for weeks 4 to 6
Optional, and line for line with the spreadsheet exercises.
The three of us
Tomás Reyes
InstructorNine years teaching introductory statistics at a community college. Writes and teaches Modules 4 to 6, and reads every capstone.
- Office hours even weeks, Thursdays
Amara Osei
Cohort lead and learner supportRuns the cohort space, schedules, refunds and certificates. Answers within one working day.
- Reachable from the contact page
Lessons everyone can use
Accessibility is part of how we write, not a setting.
- Every question, flashcard and menu works from the keyboard, with a focus ring you can see.
- Callouts carry their kind in words ("Definition", "Exam tip"), so color is never the only signal.
- Every chart has its numbers in a table you can open, and every video has captions and a transcript.
- Text meets a 7:1 contrast ratio in both light and dark themes.
If something doesn't work for you, tell us. We fix accessibility problems before anything else.
Questions? We answer every email.
About the course, a lesson you're stuck on, or whether it's right for your team.
A reply within one working day.