Last November the National Center for Education Statistics released the results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, which reviewed the math and science knowledge of a half million students from 41 nations at five different grade levels. While some results were encouraging (U.S. students improved over their showing in 1991), in several areas students in the United States were just average or were below the average accomplishments of their international counterparts. Education secretary Richard Riley commented that "one of the clear messages of this report is that we need to take a good, hard look at what we teach and how we teach math."

Ithaca College’s mathematics faculty have been doing just that, and they are now poised to be at the heart of a national effort to reform curricula and teaching in mathematics. Following last fall’s proposal review, a National Science Foundation program officer recommended funding a $3,740,000 grant to Ithaca professors Eric Robinson, Margaret Robinson, and John Maceli to establish the national Center for Implementation of Secondary School Comprehensive Instructional Materials. The new center will be the focal point for the dissemination of new mathematics curricular materials in school districts across the country.

This reform effort has been under way since the 1980s, culminating with the publication of national standards for curriculum, evaluation, performance, and assessment in school mathematics by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. As those new standards have evolved, so too have innovative approaches to math curriculum and pedagogy. The new national center in Ithaca will guide the effort to introduce these methods and materials into schools and to encourage their widespread inclusion in a new generation of mathematics textbooks.

The Robinsons and Maceli will work closely with five "satellite sites" around the country, each of which has developed a particular approach to new math materials. The satellite sites include the Core-Plus Mathematics Project at Western Michigan University; the Interactive Mathematics Program at Sonoma State University; ARISE: Applications/Reform in Secondary Education in Boston; MATH Connections: A Secondary Mathematics Core Curriculum Initiative in Connecticut; and the Systematic Initiative for Montana Mathematics and Science Project at Montana State University, Bozeman.

Eric Robinson, the project director/principal investigator for the grant, points out that "each of these five projects includes significant changes in traditional content and the context in which mathematical topics are presented. Each also profoundly affects the role of the teacher. Types of student assessment integrated into many of these programs are new, and each utilizes technology in significant ways. Collectively, these projects offer probably the best examples of curricula based on the NCTM standards that will exist in the near future." Eric and Margaret Robinson are just completing an extensive review of these materials under the auspices of an earlier NSF grant.

"As these curricula emerge," Eric Robinson continues, "the vision of sound systemic reform in mathematics education has a real potential of being realized. This vision will result in the empowerment of all students with mathematical knowledge and abilities appropriate for an increasingly mathematically dependent world. The vision of reform in mathematics education, as described in the NCTM standards, has been agreed upon by thousands of educators, policy makers, community leaders, and all the major professional societies. However, this vision will not be realized unless sound, comprehensive reform occurs in individual classrooms across the country."

The new national center at Ithaca will coordinate the distribution of these materials, informing various constituencies about the new approaches to math and working with the satellite sites to assist in the development of successful implementation strategies in schools across the country. The central site will function impartially, helping school districts make connections with the curricular approach that seems right for their teachers and students. Publishers, of course, are intensely interested in these new materials and in fact are providing some cost-sharing for the project, but school districts will be able to introduce the materials secure in the knowledge that the information they are getting from the central site is not partial to one program or the other.

With the projects scattered from California to Connecticut, the use of current technology will be essential to the dissemination effort. The center at Ithaca will maintain a database of up-to-date information about each project, including evaluation data where the programs have been implemented. A listserv will be able to announce new materials available to participants, and an extensive Web site will offer descriptive information about all the projects, including sample materials. The electronic information, supplemented by notice in national publications and presentations at national and regional conferences, will allow widespread diffusion of the initiative across the country. The faculty also anticipate extensive travel to consult with the districts as they work to reform their curriculum and approach to teaching math.

Eric Robinson points out that the timing is just right for this project. "It is not 1989 anymore [when the first NCTM standards were published]. We have come a long way in realizing real, effective reform in mathematics education. We may never have a climate conducive to this type of change again."