In this issue:
	Welcome! Announcement: first annual meeting Announcement: SIGMAA QL activities What is a course in QL? Book review

It is March in New England as I write this. We await Spring, which never arrives as quickly as it should, but instead sends little signals to tease us. The increasing light, the rising of birdsong, the swelling of tiny buds, all make us promises and, in the end, drive us mad. We see Spring approach but we cannot hurry it.

The National Numeracy Network exists because another kind of sign has arrived to indicate approaching change. Many voices have joined the discussions about quantitative literacy, its place in the educational structure, its demand in the workplace, and its relevance to participatory democracy. We see it compared to writing and to traditional mathematics. (It is generally found to be neither of those.) We hear that it will solve all manner of difficulties, both personal and social. We feel its presence as a new demand in the educational arena, complete with its attendant experts, evaluators and promoters. The National Numeracy Network hopes to be a forum for these voices, plus those of teachers of all subjects, business folk, concerned citizens and directors of centers such as The Center for Mathematics and Quantitative Education at Dartmouth, which produces this newsletter on behalf of NNN.

We want to see the issues of quantitative literacy addressed, but not as another educational fad. To be effective in the long run will require embedding quantitative expectations throughout the curriculum with the same care and intentionality with which we demand writing from students. What kind of expectations? Where is it appropriate to raise them? How can we help students meet them? These are hard questions requiring much discussion and thought from all quarters. You will find this discussion in this newsletter and at events and convenings of the National Numeracy Network, which we hope you will consider joining.

The signs of change are all around us. It is now a complete cliché to point out that the world is becoming a very quantitative place indeed. Change will come, but it would be nice if it came in a well-considered, orderly way. To this end we devote our newsletter. Because like Spring, some things shouldn’t be rushed.

First Annual Meeting
National Numeracy Network
June 18-19, 2005
Macalester College
St. Paul, MN
Program and registration information will be posted on
http://www.macalester.edu/qm4pp/NNN.html

SIGMAA QL is the Special Interest Group of the MAA which focuses on Quantitative Literacy (QL). SIGMAA QL aims to provide a structure within the mathematics community to identify the prerequisite mathematical skills for quantitative literacy (QL) and find innovative ways of developing and implementing QL curricula. We also intend to assist colleagues in other disciplines to infuse appropriate QL experiences into their courses and hope to stimulate the general national dialogue concerning QL.

Upcoming activities of the QL SIGMAA will include:

Just a few short years ago the idea of quantitative literacy (QL) was remote from my worries about education. In fact, if pressed, I would probably have chosen remedial algebra as the issue among my worries I believed to be closest to QL. Some years of reflection later and fresh from the experience of conducting experimental QL-like courses, I am beginning to understand...

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I was a bit nervous when I first picked up The Art of Changing the Brain by James E. Zull. The mathematician in me thought, "a book littered with biology terminology and diagrams is daunting and most likely won't be very useful for me as an instructor." After reading the first chapter however, I realized how wrong I was...

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