NCTM Standards

NCTM and the three Standards Documents

• NCTM  is the organization that has the most influence on what happens in school mathematics. 

Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics - 6 Principles

• The Equity Principle 
• There needs to be strong support for all students to have mathematical excellence

• The Curriculum Principle 
• This must be coherent, focused on important mathematics, and expressed across all grade levels. 

• The Teaching Principle 
• Teachers must understand what the students know and what they need to learn.  They must then challenge the students while supporting them to learn the material.

• The Learning Principle 
• The students must understand the mathematics they are learning

• The Assessment Principle 
• Assessment should be done for the students, not just to the students.

• The Technology principle 
• Teachers should use technology as a key component of the mathematical teaching

The Five Process Standards

• Problem Solving
• Reasoning and Proof
• Communication
• Connections
• Representation 

Other Influences on School Mathematics

• Since the early nineties, the pressures influencing school mathematics have become much more complex. 

• The TIMSS data has caused much of the concern with the popular press pointing out that most industrialized countries significantly outperform U.S students in mathematics and science.

• At least 20 countries performed better than the United States which found itself in a group of 14 countries in the middle of the pack. 

• U.S fourth-grade students did much better comparatively than did those at the eighth grade and high school level. 

• The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) offers us ongoing indications of what American students are learning. 

• This data suggests that while we continue to show improvement, we are not near where we want to be. Both TIMSS and NAEP are referred to at various times throughout the book. 

• Pressures on teachers from state testing programs and the requirements of NCLB are having a significant influence on what is happening in mathematics classrooms. It is difficult to make general statements concerning these influences across states. Students will undoubtedly have heard of NCLB in their general curriculum course. Finally, the power of the textbook being used in the classroom cannot be ignored. The text points out that there are a number of "standards-based curriculums" that have been developed with NSF and other monies. These programs are more in alignment with the NCTM Standards. A listing of the three elementary and five middle school programs can be found at the end of the chapter. You may want to use some of the "excerpts" from either Investigations or Connected Mathematics that can be found in every chapter in section two.

Van De Walle, J. A., Karp, K. S., & Bay-Williams, J. M. (2010). Elementary and middle school mathematics: Teaching developmentally (7^th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson