Research Into Practice: Making Equity a Reality in Classrooms

Abstract

The NCTM's Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (1989) speaks of the necessity of providing effective mathematics education for all students. Noting that “the social injustices of past schooling practices can no longer be tolerated” (p. 4), the standards document calls for a mathematics content that is “what we believe all students will need if they are to be productive citizens in the twenty-first century. If all students do not have the opportunity to learn this mathematics, we face the danger of creating an intellectual elite and polarized society” (p. 9), Similarly, the National Research Council's Mathematical Sciences Education Board noted that two themes underlie current analysis of American education: “equity in opportunity and… excellence in results” (1989. 28–29). Although the NCTM's standards and other reform documents have been critiqued as addressing the issue of equity in terms of “enlightened self-interest” as opposed to seeking justice (Secada 1989), these documents have called attention to educational disparity. The issue today is how to make the goal of equity a reality in classrooms. To do otherwise would be to assign “mathematics for all” to the status of a slogan, a catchy phrase but having no meaning in practice.