Schoenfeld

Schoenfeld, A. (2002). Making mathematics work for all children: Issues of standards, testing and equity. Educational Researcher, 31, 13 - 25.

"The technological divide is going to widen over the coming years…those who are technologically literate will have access to jobs and economic enfranchisement, while those without such skills will not" (Schoenfeld 2002).

"Disproportionate numbers of poor, African-American, Latino, and Native American students drop out of mathematics and perform below standard on tests of mathematical competency, and are thus denied both important skills and a particularly important pathway to economic and other enfranchisement" (13).

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in 1989 released, Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics, creating a set of national standards in mathematics for all students. This new vision of mathematics emphasized process over content. Consistent themes throughout all grade levels focused on "problem solving, reasoning, connections (between mathematical topics and to real world applications), and the communication of mathematical ideas in various form[s]" (15). In 2000, NCTM again issued national standards, Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, based on experience and research as a result from the implementation of the 1989 standards. Principals and Standards focuses not only on the themes of the previous standards as applied to five content areas of number, algebra, geometry, measurement, data analysis, and probability, but also included the principles of equity, coherent curricula, and teacher professionalism.

"Principles and Standards calls for the development of a core curriculum that prepares all students with the mathematical background for quantitative literacy, for the workplace, and for study at the college level. Based on extensive analysis of 97 public schools in the Pittsburgh (PA) area, Schoenfeld concluded that when schools implement the reform curricula following the national standards, "data indicate that…traditional performance gaps between majority students and poor or underrepresented minorities are diminished, through not eliminated" (14). Alan Schoenfeld suggests that this result is a means of hope that with time, research, and more experience, the gaps between student performances will continue to lessen.
This study shows promise for educators of deaf students who follow the standards carefully. Deaf students share many of the characteristics of hearing minority students, including substandard performance on tests and economic disenfranchisement.