Office of Academic Compliance
Academic compliance refers to policies, procedures, and practices in place to ensure that actions regarding degree and certificate programs – from the content of the offerings, to how and where they are delivered – adhere to institutional, state, accreditation, and federal requirements and standards.

Are students meeting our expectations?

Yes, overall quantitative reasoning scores meet each of the performance targets.

  • 29% of participants demonstrated high competence, eclipsing the 25% target. 
  • 75% of participants demonstrated competence, eclipsing the 75% target. 
  • 93% of participants demonstrated minimal competence, eclipsing the 90% target.  

Participants also eclipsed each of the three targets when the sample was adjusted so that sample proportions for school and whether the participant was enrolled in a course of study categorized as science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics (STEM) matched the population proportions of these variables. The weighted data shows 29% demonstrating high competence, 76% demonstrating competence, and 94% demonstrating minimal competence. Participants correctly answered an average of 15.7 of the 25 items, with a standard deviation of 4.9 and a median of 16. Student performance was comparable to the assessments from 2014 (Figure 1). 

Figure 1. Quantitative Reasoning Competency Longitudinal Comparison

Graph
A 3-column vertical bar graph depicting UVA Students’ Quantitiative Reasoning Competence levels by percent for years 2014 and 2024 in three categories.Competence levels from left to right: “High Competence” - Standard 25%, for year 2014 24%, for year 2024 29%. “Competence” - Standard 75%, for year 2014 81%, for year 2024 75%."Minimal Competence” - Standard 90%, for year 2014 96%, for year 2024 93%.

The subdomains of Quantitative Reasoning also show varied levels of competence, see Figure 2. Participants answered 66% of the 14 questions correctly for mathematical reasoning, 71% of the 6 questions correctly for statistical reasoning, and 46% of the 5 questions correctly for calculus and trigonometry. 

Figure 2. Student performance (average percent correct) across the three major topics of quantitative reasoning as outlined related text.
A 3-column vertical bar graph depicting percentages of questions answered correctly. From left to right: General Math 66%, Statistics 71% and Trigonmetry 46%.

Participants who were enrolled in STEM majors demonstrated higher rates of competence than their peers. While the overall targets were met, competence varied by Pell status, race, generation status, enrollment type, and gender, see Appendix E (Table E1). Pell recipients, underrepresented minorities, first-generation students, transfer students, and women demonstrated lower rates of competence than their respective peers. However, majorities of Pell recipients, underrepresented minorities, first-generation students, transfer students, and women demonstrated competence.