Preparing for the 21st century: The status of quantitative literacy in the United States

School Science and Mathematics, Dec 2000 by Wilkins, Jesse L M

Special Issue Article

This article continues our October 2000 Special Issue theme of

"A Vision for Science and Mathematics Education in the 21 st Century."

This article articulates and operationalizes a framework for investigating the level of quantitative literacy in the United States. Quantitative literacy is defined in terms of mathematical content knowledge, mathematical reasoning, understanding of the social impact and utility of mathematics, understanding the nature and historical development of mathematics, and mathematical disposition. Data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study are used to document the level of quantitative literacy in the US. Results suggest that, although students in the US seem to possess an awareness of the usefulness of mathematics and have positive dispositions toward mathematics, they fall short in their understanding of the nature of mathematics and an ability to apply their content knowledge to everyday situations. Suggestions for curriculum and instruction that align with the framework for promoting quantitative literacy are offered

As we venture into the 21 st century, the constitution of a person's functional literacy must extend beyond reading and writing to include an ability to cope with quantitative information. In most industrialized nations, with the sophistication of computers and the pervasiveness of the Internet, data and information once available only to an elite few is now at the fingertips of almost everyone. "As the printing press gave the power of letters to the masses, so the computer gives the power of number to ordinary citizens" (Steen, 1997a, p. xv).

In the United States many people have come to recognize the critical role of an everyday understanding and appreciation of mathematics as an important characteristic of a well-informed citizen and productive worker (American Association for the Advancement of Science [AAAS], 1990; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 1989, 2000; National Research Council [NRC], 1989; Steen, 1990, 1997b, 1999). This everyday understanding of mathematics has been called quantitative literacy (Steen, 1997b). With the recognition of the importance of quantitative literacy in today's society comes the need to understand what it means to be quantitatively literate and, furthermore, a need to know where the US stands as a quantitatively literate society. This article examines a framework for investigating quantitative literacy and uses data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) to analyze the present status of quantitative literacy in the US within this framework.

Recent reports from the TIMSS have presented the status of the US in terms of mathematics and science achievement (Mullis et al., 1998; National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 1998); however, these reports did not explicitly convey these results in terms of quantitative literacy as it will be defined here. Furthermore, a framework initially developed by a TIMSS committee (Orpwood & Garden, 1998) for analyzing components of literacy beyond achievement was not used in these reports. In other words, these previous reports primarily focused on achievement data, which constitute only a part of a person's quantitative literacy. Similar to these previous reports, this article provides international comparisons of general mathematical content knowledge; however, this article contends that functional literacy extends beyond knowledge of mathematical content and investigates these other components as well.

With this in mind, the purpose of this article is to investigate the level of quantitative literacy in the US and establish international benchmarks for quantitative literacy. In order to do this, this article articulates and operationalizes a framework (see Donn & Taylor, 1992a, 1992b) for understanding and investigating quantitative literacy. Data from the TIMS S are used to compare US 12th graders with students in their final year of secondary school from other nations in terms of quantitative literacy in order to create a benchmark for comparison. Finally, suggestions for mathematics curriculum and instruction that may align with the framework in promoting a more quantitatively literate society are offered.

A Working Definition of Quantitative Literacy

In this article, the term quantitative literacy is defined as an everyday understanding of mathematics. More explicitly, quantitative literacy includes a knowledge of mathematical content embedded in a contextual framework that promotes an understanding and appreciation of the nature, development, and social impact of its applications. Furthermore, it includes a capacity for reasoning and utility and is further supported by a feeling that one is able to function in a quantitative situation.

The terms quantitative literacy, mathematical literacy, and numeracy (as commonly used by the British and Australians) have been used interchangeably throughout the literature to refer to different subsets of the aforementioned description (NRC, 1989; Sons, 1992; Steen, 1997b, 1999). All three terms are used in this article, depending on the source of the discussion. However, quantitative literacy will be the defined term in this article and was chosen based on more recent discussions of the concept (Steen, 1997b, 1999).