Not Doing the Math

The Ontario Legislative Library recently contacted 173 department chairs of math, science, and engineering departments at Ontario universities, asking whether incoming students are equipped with the numeracy skills necessary to succeed in their programs. More than 30 responses were received. Overwhelmingly, these university chairs replied that, while there was a huge variability in preparation from student to student, on average their freshmen have inadequate math skills and the situation is getting worse all the time. The majority of comments were on the record as representing the university’s official position, and the authors were happy to have their responses raised publicly in the Ontario legislature. Here’s a quick sample of some of the comments.

• “The Mathematics Department has a skills test that students must complete prior to registering in the required Calculus courses. Many students have trouble passing the skills tests without significant extra study.” (Brock University)
• “We are surprised how poorly prepared these students are - makes us wonder about the safety of our bridges.” (Carleton University)
• “The level of numeracy preparation has been reducing over the years.” (Queen’s University)
• “Students having taken International Baccalaureate or Advanced Placement exams are ahead, but there are those at the other end of the spectrum that struggle to do simple chemical yield calculations in first/second year organic labs.” (University of Toronto)
• “We have had to expand the (previously) remedial mathematics and our students have major difficulties in the required math courses (especially calculus) for Science in general and Biology specifically.” (University of Waterloo)
• “I have been raising many of these issues in as many different forums as possible….Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this.” (Wilfred Laurier University)
• “Knowledge of trigonometry and geometry, in particular, is abysmal, with only a 35% success rate.” (York University)
• “Over the past many years we have observed a decrease in the fundamental numeracy skills of entering students.” (Guelph University)

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