Institute for Student Achievement
PROMOTING QUANTITATIVE LITERACY
Quantitative Literacy: The ability to make sense of quantitative representations by identifying, accounting for, and making new meaning
of them in various contexts across all disciplines.
Purpose: In an increasingly complex and data-driven world, a well-educated student needs access to ways of making quantitative
sense of the written word. One strategy for achieving this goal is the development of quantitative literacy. This involves making sense
of quantitative representations by identifying, accounting for, and making new meaning of them in various contexts across all
disciplines.
Identifying…
Students should be able to identify numerical representations included in the text.
Accounting…
Next, students should be able to account for the representations by organizing them in some meaningful way.
Making New Meaning…
At its highest level, students will be able to make new meaning which includes drawing conclusions, making inferences and posing
questions for extended investigations.
On the pages that follow, the three levels of quantitative literacy are further differentiated. In addition, we have included three levels of
recommended “teacher” questions. The first set is questions about the text. The second set of questions was designed to help students
engage in thinking that goes beyond the text. The final set supports student understanding of their questions and conjectures.
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Quantitative Literacy Rubric
For the Students…
Identifying...

Numeric representations within
context

Language within context

Making New Meaning Of...
Accounting For…

Organizing or grouping

Looking for patterns

Conjecturing (inference with
imagination or speculation)
causes with attempt to make
meaning
Mathematical relationships
within context

Computing

Comprehension of terms

Formulating questions or
conjectures for further
investigation

Draw conclusion based on the
perceived implications of the
quantities

Attempt to connect it to
unidentified causes or the data's
social or political implications

Identify possible contradictions

Investigating if the claim of the
source holds true for their context

Creation of alternative
representations to see the data
from another angle

Consider how different
representations of quantities
affect the perceptions of the
information
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Student Demonstrations of Quantitative Literacy
The table below presents specific things you may see your students doing to demonstrate that they are engaging in strategies that
support the development of their quantitative literacy.
Student Demonstrations of Identifying
Student Demonstrations of Accounting For
Highlighting, circling, underlying terms,
phrases, data, or relationships
Computing change over time between
related situations
Making observations
Read cited sources
Isolating the quantitative aspects in the
source
Articulate connections between quantities
Convert quantities to similar units
Student Demonstrations of Making New
Meaning
Formulating new questions
Investigation of new information in cited
sources or other sources of information to
improve conjecture
Connecting the quantities to broader
social, political, and ethical issues
Create a list of quantities
Creation of graphs and/or tables
Some students may see quantities as
present and others will see the
relationships within the context
Checking quantities for validity of
supportive argument
Calculate differences between the
quantities under consideration
Articulating thoughts on the causes leading
to further research
Presenting possible next steps to remedy
or advance the issue
Engage in discourse with others
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For the Teacher...
Identifying



Scan for potential paragraphs
students would use to validate
context
Identify potential words that might
help or hurt students as they read
Accounting For


Help students take on text and
break it into manageable pieces


Observe how students are making
sense of and interpreting the
document and how will I use that
inform next steps
Checking to see the connection
students are making from what they
identified and how are they
organizing their thoughts
Make New Meaning Of

Asking students to use the
information within the article to
come up with their own conjectures

Asking students to formulate ideas
that would help them defend their
position

Asking students to formulate new
questions for further investigation
based on their reading of the text

Help students build skills to look at
outside resources as a means of
presenting an idea or promote a
new point not in the article
Helping students enter into a
discussion about items they have
identified as important
Helping to guide students in
defining terms with meaning (is
what they say what they mean?)
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Quantitative Literacy Teacher Questions
The table below presents questions that you as the teacher may want to ask your students to support their development of quantitative
literacy.
Questions the teacher should be asking about the text:
What argument is the author of this article making?
Find the numeric representations in the text. How are they related?
Do the mathematical expressions connect to the argument that is being made? How?
Are the mathematical expressions consistent with the argument that is being made? How?
Do the mathematical expressions provide evidence for the argument? How?
Do the mathematical expressions impact the conclusions? How?
Is the argument strengthened or weakened by the quantitative presentations and how?
What other mathematical expressions (arguments) could you make that would strengthen the article’s thesis?
How can the mathematical expressions be translated to deepen understanding?
What are the social, political or ethical implications?
Questions the teacher should be asking that go beyond the text:
About questions the students have
Based on your quantitative and qualitative analysis of the text, what new question would you like to investigate?
What information do you need to gather to help you answer that question?
Where are you going to get that information?
How are you going to use quantitative data to help answer your question?
Questions about conjectures the students make
What conjectures can you make from your analysis of the reading?
What would you do to investigate the validity of your conjecture?
What information do you need to gather to prove or disprove your conjecture?
Where are you going to get that information?
What type of quantitative representation would best help you prove or disprove your conjecture?
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