Plank 4: Statement

[mathismore]

A coherent set of broad national curricular goals allowing for new results from educational research should be created.

While we believe in accountability and we recognize the need for curricular coherence, we worry about the Babel of ‘Standards’ being designed by individual states, districts, and more nationally-based organizations and think tanks. National standards in the spirit of curricular goals can serve a unifying purpose. Standards must, however, be generic enough to allow for the evolution of content and pedagogy. Although there must be room for trying new ideas, standards should increasingly be grounded in robust research demonstrating student learning of important mathematical ideas. Standards at the grain size of individual skills must be avoided. We also believe that the present multiplicity and specificity of standards is a barrier to innovation by both the authors and publishers of mathematics materials.