Why is numeracy a core metric on every Insight Assessment critical thinking tool? Because without it, your students, employees—and maybe even you—risk becoming a 21st century math casualty.
In the documentary Counted Out, Vickie Abeles reveals a troubling truth: every important aspect of our commercial, community, and educational lives is shaped – and too often mismanaged – by data-driven systems we rarely understand.
Consider how often your fate is decided by an algorithm:
- Your credit score
- Insurance premiums
- Job interview invitations
- Parole decisions
- Congressional district
- Even the location of your nearest grocery store
These algorithms run on data and math. And they are built, calibrated, and deployed by people who are hired to solve address a commercial or political set of purpose but who may never think critically about all the intended consequences of the algorithms they design.
Despite our dependency on numbers, only 1 in 3 adult Americans can pass a basic numeracy test. And nearly the same proportion of American high school graduates who enroll in college must take a remedial math course. Why? The film Counted Out, the answer is clear – the traditional style of math education drives too many of us away. By the time we hit junior high, many of us found basic algebra confusing, off-putting, and even alienating. Many students label themselves as “bad at math,” and are so disconnected from abstract symbols that they feel irrelevant to their lives.
The good news: there are demonstrably better ways to teach math and algebra. Thanks to many programs, including The Algebra Project, the way that math is taught and understood is radically transformed. At the Algebra Project, students from all backgrounds are learning that math is not just a school subject – it’s a civil right. Their mission is to ensure that to the proposition every child has the ability to “read, write, and reason with the symbol systems of mathematics.”
Numeracy is not just “doing math”. It’s the basic survival skill: critical thinking with information that is presented in quantitative contexts such as charts, graphs, tables, percentages, written scenarios, and patterns.
Insight Assessment defines strong numeracy as the ability to:
- Analyze quantitative claims
- Evaluate data-based arguments
- Make sound decisions using numbers, ratios, and trends
If you are an educator, now is the time to demand valid, objective assessments of critical thinking and numeracy. The future of your students depends on it. If you are a business owner or manager, don’t gamble on guesswork. Require that every candidate demonstrate basic critical thinking and numeracy skills using a valid and reliable pre-employment assessment.
Don’t wait to get started. Connect with us at Insight Assessment to explore assessment solutions that fit your goals and your people.
