By Courtney Smith-Nelson
Surprise! Pop quiz time.
Can you solve the following problems without using Google or AI?
(Don’t worry — calculators are allowed.)
- If the price of a box of cereal increases from $4 to $5, what is the percent change in the price?
If the price is reduced from $5 back to $4, what is the percent change in the price?
- A math class takes an exam. The results are as follows:
75, 77, 80, 82, 85, 85, 85, 85, 88, 90, 90, 90, 91, 94
A student missed the exam and made it up at a later date, earning a score of 60. Which statistics — mean, median, mode, or range — change when the new score is added to the dataset?
The mathematics of the first question made headlines recently. As a community college math teacher,* I was torn: on the one hand, this particular math topic — percent change — is typically taught in 7th grade math classes. Our nation’s leaders were publicly arguing about calculations that the average 13-year-old is expected to know. How embarrassing. On the other hand, though, for a brief moment in time, the American news cycle cared about math! We all saw in real time how numeracy (the mathematical version of literacy, the ability to understand and apply mathematical concepts) is inextricably connected to politics and civic engagement.
Conversations around American civics education routinely focus on literacy, and for good reason; a functioning democracy requires a populace who can read. The skills associated with an engaged, civics-minded citizenry — understanding the Constitution, framing our current political debates and problems in historical context, grappling with exposure to new ideas, participating in well-informed, good-faith political discourse — are all predicated on reading comprehension. What is often missing from these conversations, though, is the role mathematics plays in both daily life and civic engagement, and the consequences of an innumerate populace.
