In our keynote address at the 2025 National Numeracy Network Annual Meeting, we introduced the framework we developed for considering four domains of an institution’s quantitative skills/reasoning support ecosystem that includes bridge programs with a quantitative component, approaches to assessing readiness, curricular on-ramps, and supplementary support. We believe this ecosystem framework has the potential to help campus leaders coordinate institutional efforts around student success in areas connected to students’ quantitative preparation. This keynote highlighted the idea that coordination of stakeholders and their engagement with domains of the ecosystem fall along a spectrum. We provide approaches for using this framework to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of their institutional quantitative skills support ecosystem, no matter where efforts fall along this spectrum. We provide possible activities to advance conversations for strengthening the ecosystem including identifying collaboration partners, working toward a shared vision among project stakeholders, and examining initiatives past and planned. All of these approaches can help faculty and staff to leverage their skills and experiences in STEM classrooms or support centers to work together towards institutional change.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals emphasize numeracy as essential for quality education, and require its integration across the curriculum, including into civic education (CE). However, the integration of numeracy in CE in Indonesian universities has not yet been clearly mapped out. This study aims to analyze the need for numeracy integration in CE as a basis for developing a numeracy-based CE learning model. Using a mixed method with an explanatory sequential design, the study involved a convenience sample of 225 students and 10 lecturers from various universities through surveys, interviews, observations, and documentation studies. Quantitative findings show that numeracy is rarely used (65.3%), with 14.2% of students stating that it is never used in CE. This condition contributes to misperceptions, as evidenced by 71.56% of students considering numeracy irrelevant to analyzing citizenship issues. These findings are supported by qualitative evidence that learning has not integrated numeracy, thus affecting students' weak ability to analyze public discourse. Therefore, the results of this study indicate the importance of integrating numeracy into CE as a strategy to strengthen critical thinking, participation, and 21st-century competencies in order to shape informed, reflective, contributive, and thoughtful citizens. This study provides an initial empirical overview for researchers and institutions to develop a numeracy-based CE model that is adaptive to contemporary learning needs.
Numeracy has become an increasingly important 21st-century skill that, due to the relationship between math and science, is often formally developed at the college level in general education science courses. These courses serve a diverse group of students, many of whom have historically experienced science teaching, curriculum, and assessment on the margins. The well-documented biases of assessments in particular against Individuals of Color (IoC) have inspired us to approach numeracy for social justice in our work from this angle, and in this paper, we detail our efforts to revise our validated numeracy assessment to ensure it more fairly and equitably measures student knowledge, with particular attention to minimizing bias against students from racial/ethnic groups that have been marginalized in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). We also discuss the implications of our work for assessment designers and describe why our approach to test creation is necessary precursor work to addressing the under-representation of IoC in STEM and science-related fields more broadly.
Traditional introductory statistics courses that focus on techniques are not engaging for many college students; this may be especially true for first-generation college students, who generally have more difficulty engaging in the college environment than continuing-generation students. We study first-generation college students’ experiences in a course-based undergraduate research experience called Passion-Driven Statistics. Passion-Driven Statistics is a multidisciplinary, project-based introductory statistics course where students develop their own research topics, analyze publicly available quantitative data, and focus on conceptual understanding of statistics rather than hand calculations. Using pre-course and post-course surveys from students taking Passion-Driven Statistics in colleges throughout the United States, we find both first- and continuing-generation students experienced gains in (1) interest in conducting research, (2) interest in pursuing advanced coursework in statistics, and (3) plans to use statistics in the remainder of their degree programs. These findings demonstrate the benefits of an inquiry-based course to students from different backgrounds. When compared to continuing-generation students, first-generation students were more likely to feel that they spent time doing meaningful research and to feel like they were part of a scientific community. Overall, these results imply potential to reduce social disparities in quantitative skills and related careers.
The special collection, “Teaching Numeracy for Social Justice: Educational Equity,” focuses on how quantitative reasoning (QR) can function as a vehicle for equity, empowerment, and democratic participation. Building on a longstanding tradition that treats numeracy as inseparable from social justice, these contributions highlight how progressive pedagogies (e.g., active learning, authentic research, and equity-oriented assessment) have the potential to broaden access for students historically excluded from quantitative fields. The studies span a variety of conceptual frameworks, introductory and advanced quantitative instruction, and interdisciplinary applications, showcasing how inclusive QR practices can build confidence, agency, and real-world understanding. These articles demonstrate that when students engage with socially meaningful data, numeracy becomes not only a cognitive skill, but a tool for personal transformative and civic engagement. By centering marginalized learners and advocating progressive approaches both for teaching and assessment, this collection affirms the importance of numeracy not only as a pedagogical approach but as a moral imperative for expanding educational opportunity.
