The mathematics program should ensure that all students have an opportunity to become mathematically literate, are capable of extending their learning and have an equal opportunity to learn and become informed citizens capable of understanding issues in a technological society. Knowledge of mathematics is an essential element in the development of the whole person.
Mathematics is more than a collection of concepts and skills to be memorized and mastered. Mathematics includes problem solving, reasoning and communicating as well as valuing the breadth of its connections. Thus, an appropriate mathematics curriculum includes the investigation of the connections and interplay among various mathematical topics and their applications at every grade level.
All students can become mathematically powerful. They can learn to formulate and solve problems with a variety of strategies, to verify and interpret results and to generalize solutions. Their understanding of mathematical concepts can enable them to identify and generate examples and non-examples as well as recognize the various meanings and interpretations of concepts. They can learn to use models, diagrams and symbols to represent concepts and to translate from one mode of representation to another. They can recognize when a mathematical procedure is appropriate and reliably and efficiently execute procedures including appropriate methods of computation. They can verify the results of procedures as well as generate new procedures and extend or modify familiar ones.
All students should be provided access to the full range of mathematical topics. Knowledge of patterns, relations and functions; of geometry and measurement; of probability and statistics; and of increasingly important topics in discrete mathematics are a necessary foundation for all students. Since students’ interests, goals and achievements change as they mature and advance through high school, the mathematics program should be designed to keep options open. While recognizing that individuals have different career objectives and may well pursue careers as yet undefined, we further recognize that all students have the right to learn significant mathematics and to develop power over mathematical ideas.
The goals of the mathematics program are that all students:
- learn to value mathematics
- become confident in their ability to do mathematics
- become mathematical problem-solvers
- learn to communicate mathematically, and
- learn to reason mathematically
