A Decade of Quantitative Reasoning at Kalamazoo College

Summary

Program History

In 1996 Kalamazoo College revised its General Education Program. Until this reform the science requirement could be satisfied by taking any three courses from the Division of Natural Sciences, as long as not all were from the Department of Mathematics. There was no specific mathematics or quantitative reasoning requirement. Among the reforms of 1996 was a reduction of the number of courses in the Division of Natural Sciences from three to two, and the introduction of a new Quantitative Reasoning (QR) requirement.

One of the reasons for introducing this new requirement was the ubiquity of quantitative information in contemporary society. The faculty wanted to be confident that each graduate of Kalamazoo College had mastered certain fundamental quantitative skills.

In keeping with this rationale it was decided that the quantitative reasoning requirement would not be confined to the mathematics department, but could be satisfied through any course meeting the goals of the requirement. An ad hoc Quantitative Reasoning Committee was named to define these goals. Its members were drawn from the Departments of Sociology, Economics, Psychology, Chemistry, and Mathematics. A biologist chaired the committee. One of the chief documents to inform the work of this task force was the MAA Report, Quantitative Reasoning for College Graduates: A Complement to the Standards. Several members of the committee also attended a Quantitative Reasoning Workshop organized by Project Kaleidoscope in Santa Fe, New Mexico, during the summer of 1996; other members visited successful quantitative reasoning programs at Mount Holyoke, Saint Olaf, and Macalester colleges.