The
New York TImes
September
13, 2006
Report Urges Changes in
the Teaching of Math in U.S. Schools
By TAMAR LEWIN
In a major shift from its
influential recommendations 17 years ago, the National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics yesterday issued a report urging that math teaching in kindergarten
through eighth grade focus on a few basic skills.
If the report,
“Curriculum Focal Points,” has anywhere near the impact of the council’s 1989
report, it could signal a profound change in the teaching of math in American
schools. It could also help end the math curriculum struggles that for the last
two decades have set progressive educators and their liberal supporters against
conservatives and many mathematicians.
At a time when most
states call for dozens of math topics to be addressed in each grade, the new
report sets forth just three basic skills for each level. In fourth grade, for
example, the report recommends that the curriculum should center on the “quick
recall” of multiplication and division, the area of two-dimensional shapes and
an understanding of decimals. It stopped short of a call for memorization of
basic math facts.
The 1989 report is widely
seen as an important factor nudging the nation away from rote learning and
toward a constructivist approach playing down memorization in favor of having
children find their own approaches to problems, and write about their reasoning.
“It was incredibly
influential,” said Chester E. Finn Jr., a Department of Education official in
the Reagan administration. “More than half the states explicitly acknowledged
it in devising their own standards. This report is a major turnaround.”
Dr. Finn added, “This is
definitely a back-to-basics victory, emphasizing the building blocks children
have always learned that a large part of the country believes are important,
and moving away from the constructivist approach some educators prefer, in which
children learn what they want to learn when they’re ready to learn it.”
The president of the
council, Francis Fennell, a professor at McDaniel College in Maryland, played
down the degree of change the new report represented, adding that he did not
like talk of “math wars.”
Dr. Fennell pointed out
that the report did not take a stand on instructional methods, allowing
teachers to use whatever works: worksheets, calculators or materials like rods
that children can manipulate to try out different numeric relationships.
In a way, the new report
stands as a plea for consensus. “Take this opportunity to share the best that
we know as we work together to produce improved tools that support our shared
goal of a high-quality mathematics education for every student,” the
introduction says.
And consensus may be at
hand. Some of the same math professors who last year released a chart — aimed
directly at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics — detailing the “10
myths” of “N.C.T.M. (Fuzzy)” math now find themselves generally in line with
the new report.
“It represents an
enormous evolution from the 1989 standards, from the perspectives and attitudes
that were present in both camps then,” said R. James Milgram of Stanford, one
of the “10 Myths” signers. “The fact that we are now collaborating is
incredibly important.”
Math skills have taken
center stage in the national debate over education since the 2003 Trends in
International Mathematics and Science Study found that Asian students
outperformed American students. Almost a quarter of American college freshmen
take a remedial math course, according to the National Science Board.
Most states now have math
curriculum standards setting forth dozens of topics, or “learning
expectations,” to be covered in each grade — so many that it is difficult to
ensure that students will learn the most important math skills.
The report notes great
inconsistencies in which math topics are covered in which grades, how they are
defined and what students are expected to learn.
It stops short of
recommending a national math curriculum but does try to outline a curriculum
narrowed to the most important skills in each grade.
“We tried to identify the
really key things, the things a student has to focus on to progress,” said
Sybilla Beckmann, a University of Georgia
professor who helped write the report. “People like to paint this in terms of
black and white, back-to-basics and constructivism, but I think there’s a lot
of agreement about what students need to know.”