I read a paper prepared for SciMath-MN called What Employers and Educators Test: The Mathematics that Really Counts by Lynn A. Steen, St. Olaf College, May 1997. She says that there is a huge discrepancy between, on the one hand, NCTM's vision of 4 years of high school mathematics, and business leaders, public officials,teachers, college faculty all urging kids to get an 11-year core curriculum in math; and, on the other hand, the mathematics needed to pass employment tests, exit tests from high school, and even college entrance and placement tests. She says that all these tests really expect only an 8th or 9th grade level of proficiency in mathematics. (The one exception is the SAT II -- but here also, the level of problem-solving is not difficult, but the test-taker must have been exposed to the symbols used in the problems in order to perform well.) Ms. Steen contends that mathematical competence means quite different things to different groups: for many parents and employers, it means skill in computing, measuring and calculating; for NCTM, it means the power gained from conceptual understanding, from problem-solving ability, from the ability to investigate, reason, and communicate; while for college faculty, it means the ability to relate different concepts to one another. Ms. Steen cites authors Murnane and Levy of Teaching the New Basic Skills, who say that most of the jobs in the future will require math of the 9th grade level; SCANS author, Arnold Packer, who says that 90% of the people will not be disadvantaged if they do not study math beyond the 8th or 9th grade level; and finally Bertrand Russell, who said about mathematics: "the educational expectations often seem to be an area in which we don't know what we are talking about nor whether what we are saying is true." Possibly all teachers are caught in a similar bind. However, I think math teachers are so often called to justify the utility of their discipline while also trying to meet the curriculum expectations, NCTM standards, prepare students for work, for entrance tests to various college and other post-secondary training, and basic skills and high standards. As Bertrand Russell says, we aren't always sure of the veracity of our assertions that all of this is truly needed; maybe it's something that we found interesting and rather beautiful, and we'd like to pass it on.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 1999