Panel Urges Schools to Emphasize Core Math Skills

It's not just lessons that need to change, the panel said, but also the nation's attitudes about math. In a culture in which parents say they "weren't good at math either," children assume they don't have the talent for numbers. The panel said that research shows that practice pays off and that adults need to give students that message.

The panel also weighed in on the long-running battle between traditionalists, who favor a focus on memorization and drilling, and those who prefer stressing concepts and letting students make connections on their own. Students need to know math facts and have automatic recall, Faulkner said, but they also need "some element of discovery."

"I think this panel has gradually evolved to the view that most members believe that most effective teachers draw from both philosophies at different times," he said.

The panel met a dozen times, heard testimony from groups and individuals and reviewed thousands of research papers. The panel said that it is "self-evident" that teachers need to have strong math skills but that more research must be done to find the best ways to prepare them.

Local educators, business leaders and interest groups were delving into the report yesterday afternoon. School officials in Montgomery and Fairfax counties said the recommendations mirror efforts underway to help more children successfully complete an algebra course by the end of eighth grade.

Roy Romer, former governor of Colorado and chairman of Strong American Schools, said the report illustrates a need for states to voluntarily agree on standards that are "uniform for all of America and benchmarked against the rest of the world." The nonpartisan group seeks to make education a priority in the 2008 presidential election.

"We include too much, we're much too broad and we don't go deep enough," said Romer, who also served as Los Angeles school superintendent. "We put out these textbooks with 750 pages, and if you're a fourth-grade teacher, you can't teach 750 pages. You have to be selective."