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Focus on Mathematics

Recent news about mathematics education suggests that identifying and implementing "what works" is much more complicated than the public and the press assume. The Pew Research Center recently reported research showing that women score much lower on math tests if they are first asked unrelated questions about gender issues. The study is the latest example of a phenomenon known as "stereotype threat" that affects the performance of women or minorities in areas where the general stereotype suggests they are weak. The study by University of Texas psychologist Matthew S. McGlone suggested that performance can actually be manipulated in a positive direction by prompting people to think about their strengths rather than their stereotypical weaknesses. Students at Lafayette College, where McGlone taught, were asked to answer a questionnaire before taking a math achievement test. One group was asked questions about why they chose to attend a private liberal arts college in order to prompt them to think about how smart and accomplished they were. Another group was prompted to be aware their gender-related experiences by answering whether they lived in a single-sex or co-ed dorm. The students then took the Vandenberg Mental Rotation Test, a standard test of visual-spatial ability on which men have generally performed far better than women. In the control group, the men did 15 to 20 percent better on the Vandenberg test than the women, and among those who had been cued to think about their gender, the men did 25 percent to 30 percent better than the women. Among those who were primed to think about their status as students at an exclusive private college, however, women's performance improved while men's did not change. As a result, there was no significant difference between men and women. The report on the study is titled "Women can't do math. Or can they?" (see http://pewresearch.org/obdeck/?ObDecklD=58). Teaching mathematics in high school is, of course, greatly influenced by what students learn in the middle grades and earlier. That is why secondary teachers and curriculum directors should take note of a report called "Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten Through Grade 8 Mathematics" recently published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. A news release at the NCTM web site noted that individual states have made enormously different applications of its 1989 content standards with some states identifying nearly 100 expectations per grade level. The Focal Points are meant to help states identify those skills and abilities that are truly essential for each age level. The news release noted that report was "reviewed by numerous math experts from across the country, some of whom have strongly disagreed with the organization's past positions on essential skills." (see NCTM.org) In response to the release of Focal Points, an editorial in the New York Times (see http://www. …