X. Raising the Standards

Future goals for success

Implementing these goals will require action on the part of all constituencies of the educational system in South Carolina. This can be not be a grass-roots action or a top-down action; it must be both. This report makes recommendations which requires change at each point of contact in the educational process: parent/student, student/teacher, teacher/parent, teacher/administration, teacher/college, etc. To change mathematics education in South Carolina will require:

• A change in expectations for learning mathematics, both internal and external to the educational community
• The participation of every constituency in South Carolina (business, government, parents, students, teachers, school boards, etc. ) through changing their own expectations of teaching and learning mathematics and through individual actions supporting mathematics education
• Each group to act as an advocate for change.

Attempts to implement all of the changes in this report will of course fall short of "perfection". The standards must be reviewed continually in the context of desirable educational practices and then repeatedly reset to make sure the students of South Carolina are ready for their life-long work and learning. For the meantime, the two primary goals of mathematics education in South Carolina must be:

• To increase the depth and intensity of mathematics and the interest and ability of South Carolina students to the point that remediation for college entrance or for collegiate success is no longer an issue in higher education for traditional freshman students
• To ensure that mathematical skill, or the lack thereof, is not the limiting factor in choice of major or career for South Carolina students.

Mathematics education is vital to the functioning of a community, state or nation for all the reasons which make education in general important to these political bodies:

• Maintains the culture of the community
• Allows the community to function as viable economic entity
• Maintains an educated citizenry, one of the principles of democratic government
• Provides a basis for life-long learning as the requirements for an individual to be productive.

Mathematics provides a specialized arena in which to achieve these goals which is particularly necessary as we enter the 21^st century. Mathematics specifically enhances thinking and technological skills:

• Allows an educated workforce which will attract businesses to the community
• Supports a higher standard of living by allowing individuals to qualify for higher paying jobs
• Enhances the ability to learn in the workplace, especially abstract concepts
• Enhances the ability to manipulate abstract concepts and to make abstract constructs in any area of knowledge or interest
• Provides a technological basis for the growth in science and technology in the 21^st century

If South Carolina is to maintain a competitive position in the nation and in the world, the issues of mathematics education must be addressed thoroughly, carefully, and continuously. This report provides a template for beginning the process.

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