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Greetings, PC colleagues!

The Numeracy Assessment committee would like to share the 2004 assessment results and invite faculty from all program areas to submit samples.  Two documents are attached for your review.

The first attachment shows the results of the 2004 numeracy assessments.  179 samples of student work were collected from 10 courses in disciplines including art, phlebotomy, dental hygiene, business, Spanish, health enhancement, and cultural & applied sciences.  You can view the specific results in the attachment, but I can summarize and approximate them for you here.

About 54% of our sampled students were able to correctly analyze the assigned problem in the class they were taking, and about 18% were not.  About 28% weren't required to do so in the problem which was submitted as a sample.  A student can demonstrate this competency by correctly identifying necessary and unnecessary information given in the problem, or by restating the problem in their own words, or by gathering needed information from sources outside the given problem.

About 69% of our sampled students were able to select or develop a mathematical model for the given information in the problem, and about 17% were not.  About 14% weren't required to do so in the problem which was submitted as a sample.  A student can demonstrate this competency by accurately representing the information given in the problem with an appropriate formula, chart, graph, spreadsheet, diagram, or other mathematical model.

About 78% of our sampled students were able to give the correct answer to the problem, including the correct units of measurement, and about 22% were not.  Every question submitted required this competency.

About 24% of our sampled students were able to review their results for reasonableness, and about 21% were not.

About 55% weren't required to do so in the problem which was submitted as a sample.  This is probably the area where our students need the most help.  If our instruction prepares them for using their mathematics in real life, then they need to have some methods to evaluate their answer as reliable or not, because there will be no "back of the book" to check themselves against.  They need to know how to solve their problems in multiple ways, or to compare their result to their own common knowledge of similar circumstances, or to recognize when there is more than one correct answer.

About 23% of our sampled students were able to use their result to make some inference about reality, and about 23% were not. 

About 54% weren't required to do so in the problem which was submitted as a sample. 

A student can demonstrate this competency by stating some action that should be taken as a result of the numerical answer they obtained, or by interpreting that numerical answer in the context of the situation. Hopefully, over time, we'll see these percentages improve, particularly in the last two competencies, involving deeper mathematical thinking.  If you're interested in ways to help your students apply the math you teach them to their lives, and engage more actively with math, please contact any one of the members of the Numeracy Assessment of Student Learning committee, listed at the end of this e-mail. Now, for those of you who are still reading this far down, I'm going to level with you.  Connecting with individual faculty, discussing how and where they already teach math in their courses, and collecting samples of student work from them is mostly what I do as Chair of the Numeracy Assessment Committee.  I find that e-mails to dl-pc-fac aren't very effective for collecting samples.  Last year, I found myself starting at the front of the Phoenix College phone directory, and writing a personal e-mail to each faculty listed, one by one, asking if they use math in any of the classes they teach.  I got about halfway through the directory before the end of the school year.  This fall, I'm starting at the end of the phone directory and working my way to the beginning.  You'd be doing me a HUGE favor if you sent me an e-mail right now, letting me know that yes, you use math in one or more of your classes, and you'd consider submitting something for assessment if  I looked it over to see if it would work, or no, there's no math used in any of your courses right now so I shouldn't bother you.  Particularly, if you never teach math in your courses, I'd love to hear from you, because then I can make a note of that and never pester you again, instead focusing my attentions on those faculty in the "swing" disciplines like art, where they may use math but not realize it.  If you find yourself unsure of whether the math you teach in class could be used for assessment, I would be very happy to have a look at it in person, or by e-mail , or by phone, and help you decide.

Thank you so much for your time, and I hope I hear from you soon!

The Numeracy Assessment Committee

Kory Merkel, Chair (extension 5-7673)

Anne Hodgkins

Diane Stark

Matt Fisher

Ed Ong