National Mathematics Panel Issues Call for "Back to Basics"

March 17, 2008

The National Mathematics Advisory Panel has urged that the nation's teachers promote a "quick and effortless" recall of arithmetic facts in early grades, mastery of fractions in middle school, and rigorous algebra courses in high school at the latest. These key elements of mathematics teaching would mark a departure from the approaches that now govern the teaching of the subject in U.S. public schools.

"Without substantial and sustained changes to the educational system, the United States will relinquish its leadership in the twenty-first century," reads the final report released in mid-March by the Department of Education. The National Mathematics Advisory Panel, appointed by President Bush, has essentially endorsed K-8 math reforms that, in many ways, mirror Singapore's mathematics curriculum.

The report could mean a cease-fire in the nation's math war, which has raged between traditionalists and reformers. Fundamentalists have called for a return to basics; reformers have demanded a curriculum that emphasizes conceptual understanding. Mathematicians on both sides of the divide say the Singapore curriculum teaches both.
 
The advisory group outlined the following as "critical foundations" or benchmarks for U.S. school children.

Fluency with whole numbers: 1) By the end of grade three, students should be proficient with the addition and subtraction of whole numbers. 2) By the end of grade five, students should be proficient with multiplication and division of whole numbers.

Fluency with fractions: 1) By the end of grade four, students should be able to identify and represent fractions and decimals, and compare them on a number line or with other common representations of fractions and decimals. 2) By the end of grade five, students should be proficient with comparing fractions and decimals and common percents, and with the addition and subtraction of fractions and decimals. 3) By the end of grade six, students should be proficient with multiplication and division of fractions and decimals. 4) By the end of grade six, students should be proficient with all operations involving positive and negative integers. 5) By the end of grade seven, students should be proficient with all operations involving positive and negative fractions. 6) By the end of grade seven, students should be able to solve problems involving percent, ratio and rate and extend this work to proportionality.

Geometry and measurement: 1) By the end of grade five, students should be able to solve problems involving perimeter and area of triangles and all quadrilaterals having at least one pair of parallel sides (i.e. trapezoids). 2) By the end of grade six, students should be able to analyze the properties of two dimensional shapes and solve problems involving perimeter and area, and analyze the properties of three-dimensional shapes and solve problems involving surface area and volume. 3) By the end of grade seven, students should be familiar with the relationship between similar triangles and the concept of the slope of a line.

The panel also urged publishers to greatly shorten elementary and middle-school math textbooks that currently can run for 700-1,000 pages and cover a host of subjects.

Source: The Seattle Times