President’s Message November 2018

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As an affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, MCTM can draw on many resources. Including NCTM standards and policy statements. As we work to establish our Equity Committee to address the needs of members across the state, we spent some time as with our MCTM Board reviewing the NCTM position statement on Access and Equity (shown below and accessed at online here).

NCTM Position

Creating, supporting, and sustaining a culture of access and equity require being responsive to students’ backgrounds, experiences, cultural perspectives, traditions, and knowledge when designing and implementing a mathematics program and assessing its effectiveness.

Acknowledging and addressing factors that contribute to differential outcomes among groups of students are critical to ensuring that all students routinely have opportunities to experience high-quality mathematics instruction, learn challenging mathematics content, and receive the support necessary to be successful.

Addressing equity and access includes both ensuring that all students attain mathematics proficiency and increasing the numbers of students from all racial, ethnic, linguistic, gender, and socioeconomic groups who attain the highest levels of mathematics achievement.

When I read these statements as a mathematics educator, here are the big ideas for me:

  • Participate in professional learning that includes strategies for designing instruction to support and respond to the needs of all students.
  • When selecting instructional support materials, be certain to identify and implement materials that support and are responsive to student backgrounds, experiences, cultural perspectives, traditions and knowledge on both the content and the instructional strategies in the materials.
  • Support teachers and systems to eliminate ability grouping (tracking) of all kinds and for all grade levels. When tracking is in place, it creates an opportunity gap.
  • Ensure that all students have opportunities to access high level mathematics coursework and to achieve. Eliminating tracking is a first step, but we must be aware of all barriers to student achievement.

As you consider your work in the classroom, school and district, these are ideas that should drive your work until we eliminate the gaps in achievement and opportunities for each and every student.

Emily Larsen

MCTM President