The principles for school mathematics address the overarching themes of equity, curriculum, teaching, learning, assessment and technology. (NCTM, 2000)
- Equity: Excellence in mathematics education requires equity – high expectations, worthwhile opportunities, accommodation for differences, resources, and strong support for all students.
- Curriculum: A coherent curriculum effectively organizes standards and mathematical ideas, focuses on important mathematics, and is well articulated within and across grades.
- Teaching: Effective standards-aligned mathematics instruction is a complex endeavor that requires understanding what students know and need to learn, and then challenging and supporting them to learn it well. Effective teaching requires continually seeking improvement.
- Learning: Conceptual understanding is an important component of proficiency. Students must learn mathematics with understanding, actively building new knowledge from experience and prior knowledge. Learning with understanding is essential to enable students to solve the new kinds of problems they will inevitably face in the future.
- Assessment: Standards-aligned assessment, a routine part of ongoing classroom activity, should enhance students' learning and inform instructional decisions.
- Technology: Technology, not to be used as a replacement for basic understandings and intuitions, is an essential tool in teaching and learning mathematics; it influences the mathematics that is taught, supports visualization, facilitates organizing and analyzing data, and offers efficient computation.
Source: Deidre Richardson, Coordinator
http://www.state.nj.us/education/aps/cccs/math/
To view the Mathematics curriculum overview for a particular grade level/course, please use the links on the right side of the page.
To view the high school Mathematics department information please click here.
