In general, quantitative literacy skills refer to a set of competencies needed to accurately work with data expressed numerically. In this article, the authors focus on one element of such skills: the ability to read, interpret, and analyze percentages presented in crosstabulation, or joint contingency, tables. The authors present data collected to evaluate students' learning to read tables and reflect on how sociologists can use table reading to build the general quantitative literacy skills students need to describe data, identify variables, and evaluate research hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]