Calculating a New Approach

The panel's report tries to defuse factional tension between proponents of new math, fuzzy math, back-to-basics math and the like. The report says teacher-directed approaches (the skills-and-drills method) or student-centered approaches (based on individual or group exploration of math concepts) each have a place.

At the same time, the report will provide momentum to the small but increasingly influential group of math researchers and educators who see the curriculum used in Singapore, often called Singapore Math, as the gold standard. Singapore math is very lean, says Charles Patton,  a software developer at SRI International and math-education researcher who is working with Singapore's National Institute of Education. The Singapore curriculum flows coherently from one subject to another, culminating in algebra. "If you flip through the pages of an American math textbook and a Singapore math textbook, you begin to understand just how much thought and effort went into sequencing and wording. It is a very powerful and well-engineered tool," he says.

Since 2006, when the NCTM published its guidelines, several states have begun looking at ways to simplify their math curriculum. But Patton cautions against schools simply grafting Singapore Math textbooks onto their already existing math program. Singapore's teachers are trained by a single institution, which also provides the math curriculum, tests and textbooks. Teachers get about 100 hours of professional development to work on their instructional skills. "If you simply drop a Singapore math textbook into your math program," says Patton, "it is bound to fail."

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