Quantitative Literacy: Does it Work? Evaluation of Student Outcomes at Colby-Sawyer College

dc.creator	Benjamin Steele
dc.creator	Semra Kiliç-Bahi
dc.date	2010-07-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-08-12T11:19:07Z
dc.date.available	2015-08-12T11:19:07Z
dc.identifier	1936-4660
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/994a91b3df91435c879d60eb93fe7677
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/27380
dc.description	Colby-Sawyer College has adopted a mission for quantitative literacy (QL) to give students the “necessary skills to understand and use quantitative information in their personal and professional lives.” We have implemented an across-the-curriculum approach to develop these skills. As part of this QL program, we administer two assessment tests, one in basic mathematical skills and one that applies those skills, plus an attitude survey to both freshmen and seniors. Three years of data show that seniors score about 10 percentage points higher than freshmen on these tests. However, seniors still scored below 55 percent on both tests, and many cannot answer what we feel are questions that an informed citizen should be able to answer. As evaluation of progress in quantitative skills becomes more common, we suspect that similar results will be found at other colleges. We propose that this deficit in skills results from a lack of practice of the skills students learned before college or a reliance on calculators for simple calculation. If we want to improve the QL preparation of college students, we suggest that there needs to be more widespread evaluation of QL skills at the college level, an increase in QL teaching and learning in the college curriculum, and collaboration with educators at the pre-college level.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	University of South Florida Libraries
dc.relation	http://dx.doi.org/10.5038/1936-4660.3.2.3
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/1936-4660
dc.rights	CC BY-NC
dc.source	Numeracy, Vol 3, Iss 2, p 3 (2010)
dc.subject	quantitative literacy
dc.subject	assessment
dc.subject	evaluation student outcomes
dc.subject	test
dc.subject	survey
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Mathematics
dc.subject	QA1-939
dc.subject	Science
dc.subject	Q
dc.subject	DOAJ:Mathematics
dc.subject	DOAJ:Mathematics and Statistics
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Mathematics
dc.subject	QA1-939
dc.subject	Science
dc.subject	Q
dc.subject	DOAJ:Mathematics
dc.subject	DOAJ:Mathematics and Statistics
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Mathematics
dc.subject	QA1-939
dc.subject	Science
dc.subject	Q
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Mathematics
dc.subject	QA1-939
dc.subject	Science
dc.subject	Q
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Mathematics
dc.subject	QA1-939
dc.subject	Science
dc.subject	Q
dc.title	Quantitative Literacy: Does it Work? Evaluation of Student Outcomes at Colby-Sawyer College
dc.type	article