ABSTRACT
The U.S. “standards-based” reform movement in school mathematics and science has been based on the belief that, in most classrooms at all school levels, mathematics and science instruction is neither suitable nor sufficient to adequately equip our children with the concepts and skills needed for the 21st century. Furthermore, unless something is done to alter current schooling trends, conditions are likely to get worse in the coming decades. In 1983, the need for reform in classroom practices was brought vividly to the attention of the U.S. public with the publication of A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) and Educating Americans for the 21st Century (National Science Board Commission on Precollege Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology, 1983). The authors of those documents claimed that competing in a global environment depended on a workforce knowledgeable about the mathematical, scientific, and technological aspects of the emerging information age and that our schools were failing to prepare students for their future. This concern was reechoed in Before It's Too Late: A Report to the Nation(National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century, 2000) and in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
