Editorial: Teaching to a standard

Saturday, Sept. 16, 2006 | 8:15 a.m.

A common debate in education is whether there should be a national standard for teaching or whether local school districts should be deciding the right approach on their own. A study released this week argues that, for mathematics anyway, a national standard would be best.

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, founded in 1920 and based in Reston, Va., produced the study, which found that the nation's schools are inconsistent when it comes to deciding the grade levels in which math concepts are taught.

When does a student begin learning basic arithmetic? Kindergarten? Second grade? How about algebra? The study found that answers vary from state to state. The study included a survey of educational organizations in 47 states, which found that 85 percent of them believed "national leadership is needed," according to a Bloomberg News story.

The council once advocated a decentralized approach to teaching. Based on the findings of its study, however, the group now says a national standard for teaching math, beginning with kindergarten, is needed.

We agree with the study's authors, who advocate not only a standardized emphasis on the basics, but also an emphasis on how the basics are applied in life. This, they say, would better prepare students for algebra, which they recommend students begin learning in the eighth grade. Educators have tended to neglect old-fashioned basic arithmetic while experimenting with new teaching methods, leaving many students ill-prepared for instruction in higher branches of math.

That's why many students get discouraged and turn away from math. And that can affect their whole lives. A 2004 study by the American Diploma Project, a network of 22 states whose goal is to better prepare students for college, found that students who finish just one course beyond Algebra II triple their chances of getting a bachelor's degree.

Greater student achievement is the primary goal in education. One measure of determining whether this goal is being met is through national standardized testing. It seems logical that such testing should be precipitated by standardized teaching.