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June 28, 2010
The Importance of Quantitative Literacy as a Higher Education Outcome
By Irene Burgess, Appalachian College Association
“I just don’t do math.”
“I’m not right-brained enough for that.”
“If I can test out of college algebra, I’ll never have to do math again.”
Those of us who work with incoming students to our colleges and universities hear these kinds of statements all the time. Despite deeply held beliefs and prejudices about mathematical thinking, the appropriate response to all three is that as participants in the world, they have no choice but to “do” math.
Cooking, estimating earned run averages, constructing a fence, or winning a game of poker all require people to “do” math, even when they can’t. Perhaps even more vitally, people can’t make decisions about government, health, and the economy without a sound understanding of statistics and numeric reasoning. Mathematical understanding is a real world skill that can be a barrier to full engagement in the world.
In the thirty-six small private colleges and universities of the Appalachian College Association (ACA), roughly 20 to 30 % of incoming freshman need to take some sort of developmental mathematics in order to be ready for statistics, pre-calculus, or calculus. This is not unusual across the United States; the percentages can rise even higher for public universities. This is despite the fact that most students graduate from high school with at least two years of college algebra.
To deal with the paradox of negative cultural mores about mathematical thinking despite the reality of an ongoing need for mathematically literate individuals, educators talk about the need for Quantitative Literacy, Quantitative Reasoning, and/or Numeracy as an essential skill for all college graduates.
In a forthcoming series of blog entries, ACA campuses that have worked on increasing ease with mathematical competency among their incoming freshmen will talk about some of the challenges and opportunities they pursued with the assistance of funding from the Teagle Foundation. Please feel free to contact me, Irene Burgess at ireneb@acaweb.org if you want further information on details of the projects from Berea College, Bethany College and Emory & Henry College.
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