How well is “Mathematical Literacy” Doing?

The AMATYC “New Life Project” has a curricular vision that includes two new courses that can replace the traditional developmental mathematics courses.  The first of the new courses is Mathematical Literacy for College Students (often shortened to just Mathematical Literacy, or even MLCS); this course shares content with the Carnegie Foundation Pathways (Quantway™ and Statway™) and with the Dana Center (Foundations of Mathematical Reasoning).

With the New Life Project, our work is based on faculty making choices and working with publishers to develop materials.  Currently, two commercial texts are available for MLCS (either published or soon-to-be published); some faculty have also custom published their own materials, or adapted existing materials.  The initial MLCS pilots started about two years ago.

As of fall 2013, here is a summary of the known MLCS course implementations (number of sections):

The actual total is definitely higher than this (153 sections), as we know of other colleges using one of the new Math Lit textbooks.  A few more colleges are implementing MLCS in Spring 2014, and several more colleges are implementing Fall 2014.

I think it is worth noting that all of this progress is being made without special grants; no mandates are involved, and we have no ‘staff’ in the New Life project.  What we do have — dozens of dedicated faculty, willing colleges, and publishers willing to work with us.

The New Life Project is a voluntary effort (AMATYC Developmental Mathematics Committee) with considerable collaboration with the Carnegie Foundation and the Dana Center — especially in providing curricular expertise to those organizations.  We can be proud of this progress and our work together.

The use of Mathematical Literacy will continue to grow.  Our work will increase the emphasis on the second course — Algebraic Literacy; for information on Algebraic Literacy, you can see a presentation from this year’s Summit on Developmental Mathematics at https://www.devmathrevival.net/?page_id=1807

More information on both New Life courses is available over at the New Life community home — dm-live (https://dm-live.wikispaces.com/)

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2 Comments

• 

  By schremmer, December 4, 2013 @ 10:02 am

  Where can I find:
  -the materials already developed
  -the contents descriptions of the materials being developed
  -the contents specifications of the materials yet to be developed?
  Regards
  –schremmer

• 

  By Jack Rotman, December 5, 2013 @ 8:22 am

  The materials ready — Pearson (Almy & Foes), and McGraw Hill (Mercer & Sobecki).
  Contents — from the publishers (though they are both based on the MLCS outcomes, with modifications — see the Instant Presentations page).
  The ‘contents … yet to be developed’ is a question of predictive analytics.

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