On Professional Judgment and the National Mathematics Advisory Panel Report: Curricular Content

In Foundations for Success: The Final Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (2008), the Panel’s recommendations on curricular content are based on the professional judgment of the Panel members, not on research on learning and teaching algebra. As such, the Panel’s recommendations must be viewed in light of the political and ideological perspectives from which they were made. The recommendations are also examined from the perspective that inattention to meaning is a root problem of mathematics teaching and learning, yet the report does not consider issues of mathematical meaning or their implications for reform.