A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Consistent with the President's directive, this action strategy identifies steps that Federal agencies, along with their partners, can take to help students reach challenging standards in mathematics in grades 5-8 and to ensure that Federal resources will effectively support State and local reforms. It is based on the efforts of the interagency working group, which reviewed the current state of mathematics education, consulted with other Federal agencies and with outside organizations, and reviewed Federal programs before identifying three priority areas for action. (See Appendices 3-6 for more detailed information.)

The Federal Role

While education is a national priority, it is primarily a State and local responsibility. The Federal role is to provide good information, effective tools, and financial support that will assist States and local communities in ensuring that all of their students have the mathematical skills they need to succeed in the workplace as productive citizens. This includes promoting effective partnerships that mobilize support from the community -- students, parents, educators, business leaders, volunteers, and concerned citizens from all walks of life -- to that end.

Priorities for Action

Therefore, the priorities of this action strategy will focus Federal investment on:

• Assisting States, local school districts, and the nation's colleges and universities to provide the skills and knowledge that equip teachers in grades 5-8 to teach challenging mathematics content in effective ways, with high expectations for their students;

• Assisting States and local school districts to select and implement high-quality, standards-based curricula and instructional materials, including effective use of educational technologies; and

• Building parent and public understanding of challenging mathematics in grades 5-8, and gaining public support for raising student achievement toward high standards.

Scope and Scale

In grades 5-8 there are approximately 13.5 million students taught by about 320,000 teachers of mathematics. These students and teachers are distributed among 34,000 schools in close to 15,000 districts. Many of these schools and districts are already actively involved in setting high standards for instruction and student achievement and are implementing plans to achieve them.

The core of this action strategy is assisting all schools and districts to make more effective use of Federal resources in their efforts to address the above priorities with respect to mathematics in grades 5-8. The Department of Education and the National Science Foundation plan to provide opportunities for districts to accelerate their progress toward improved achievement in this area through incentives for enhanced coordination, planning, and implementation. Districts that serve large numbers of disadvantaged students will receive particular attention. The number of districts, schools, teachers, and students served will depend largely on the level of resources that can be devoted to the acceleration effort and the readiness of districts to respond.

At the same time, an effort at public information and engagement will provide a much-needed complementary mechanism to reach a broader base of students and their families. The participating Federal agencies, with their ties into the science, mathematics, engineering, and technology communities, are well-positioned to encourage these communities to cooperate in spurring such an effort.

Finally, it is not enough to address only today's teachers and implementation of instructional materials and technologies available now. Approximately 30,000 new teachers of mathematics in grades 5-8 are needed each year. At the same time, development of learning technologies is extremely rapid, and adaptation of curricula to accommodate this pace is a continuing concern. Addressing these issues is also an important part of the action strategy.

Progress in any one of the three priority areas -- teachers, instructional materials and technology, and parent and public information and engagement -- will often depend on and demand improvement in others. For instance, the introduction of high-quality instructional materials will have little impact if teachers are not trained to use those materials effectively. The action plan must work on all fronts in order to make progress toward improved student achievement. The action plan below first provides an orientation to existing resources and specific new joint activities. The final sections are organized around the three priority areas.
-###-

[Section I]

[Section III]