Deborah Loewenberg Ball recently reviewed the Center on Reinventing Public Education's latest report, Navigating the Math Wars: A Practical Guide to the Divides and Debates Influencing Math Instruction, for the National Education Policy Center.
In her review, Loewenberg Ball asserts that although the report provides a useful overview of current public and professional debates about mathematics instruction, it ultimately falls short of offering the nuanced discussions of instructional practice needed to support students’ mathematical understanding, fluency, reasoning, and engagement. According to the review, “to move past ‘wars’ to a system that successfully supports students to thrive mathematically, it will be important to focus on teaching practice and its complex demands, how it can support learning, and the role of sociopolitical and historical contexts. This report does not attend to these crucial imperatives.”
Read the NEPC Review.
Read Navigating the Math Wars.