Summary

The Mathematics Standards presented in this chapter offer a powerful challenge to all teachers, all schools, and all districts in New Jersey - to enable all of our students to step forward into the next century with the mathematical skills, understandings, and attitudes that they will need to be successful in their careers and daily lives.

The Mathematics Standards also offer a powerful tool to help us meet that challenge, providing a vision and standards which both inform us and rally us in our efforts.

It will not be easy to meet this challenge, nor can it happen overnight. But it can only happen if all of us together decide to make it happen. There are many obstacles, but we must not let our awareness of the obstacles become yet another obstacle. Let us work together to make the vision of New Jersey's Mathematics Standards a reality by the end of this century!

References

Mathematical Sciences Education Board. Everybody Counts. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1989.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Assessment Standards for School Mathematics. Reston, VA, 1995.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics. Reston, VA, 1989.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics. Reston, VA, 1991.

New Jersey State Department of Education. Core Curriculum Content Standards. Trenton, NJ, 1996.

New Jersey Mathematics Coalition. Mathematics to Prepare Our Children for the 21st Century: A Guide for New Jersey Parents, 1994.

New Jersey Mathematics Coalition. Preliminary Version of the New Jersey Mathematics Curriculum Framework, 1995.

On-Line Resources

http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/archive/nj_math_coalition/framework.html/

The Framework will be available at this site during Spring 1997. In time, we hope to post additional resources relating to this standard, such as grade-specific activities submitted by New Jersey teachers, and to provide a forum to discuss the Mathematics Standards.