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Setting the Record Straight about Changes in Mathematics Education: Commonsense Facts about the NCTM StandardsIn
April 1989, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
released its Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School
Mathematics, thereby launching a decade of renewed interest in
educational standards. These 1989 Standards have been updated in NCTM’s
Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (to be released 12
April 2000). Overall, the NCTM Standards documents advocate a broader
and more meaningful mathematics curriculum that is responsive to
changing societal priorities and to changes in instructional practice
that meet the needs of a far greater proportion of the student
population than has been true in the past.
The Standards call
for a mathematics curriculum that emphasizes finding and justifying
solutions to problems, in addition to performing calculations.
Furthermore, they encourage teaching in ways that help students make
sense of important concepts through representing, communicating,
reasoning about, and making connections among mathematical ideas.
In the decade since the original set of standards was released, two important changes have occurred:
There has been broad implementation of elements of the Standards in classrooms across the United States and Canada.
- New instructional materials that embrace the vision of the Standards have been developed.
- An increased emphasis at all grade levels on problem solving and realistic applications of mathematics has occurred.
- Technology, in the form of powerful calculators and computers,
has become an important tool for students to use in learning
mathematics.
There has been a clear and consistent pattern of higher student achievement.
- Student proficiency on the National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP) mathematics assessments has significantly increased at
grades 4, 8, and 12 between 1990 and 1996, representing approximately
one grade level of growth at each grade level.
- Average SAT-Math scores have increased from 500 in 1991 to 512 in 1998.
- Some of the greatest student gains in mathematics between 1990
and 1996 have occurred in states like Connecticut, Michigan, Texas, and
North Carolina—four states that have made strong and consistent
investments in state standards and assessments that reflect the vision
of the NCTM Standards.
The facts are simple:
- The NCTM Standards Make Sense!
- The NCTM Standards Are Working for Our Students!
- The NCTM Standards Are Working for Our Future!
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This Page was last updated: Friday, February 27, 2004 at 11:48:05 AM
This page was originally posted: 5/23/2001; 3:05:02 PM.
Copyright 2008 cmcmath
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