303equity

    According to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics equity principle, “excellence in mathematics education requires equity-high expectations and strong support for all students” (12). Thus, in order to make the ideals of reform mathematics a reality, teachers must have high expectations for all students. Teachers must allow mathematics to be available to all students by providing educational opportunities for all students while providing appropriate accommodations to those students with individual differences.

     Additionally, teachers must provide students the amount of support necessary to succeed, including tutoring, extra help, cooperative group work, and extra educational opportunities. Schools must also provide the instructional tools, curriculum materials, supplemental programs, community resources, and teacher support necessary to achieve equity (NCTM 14). More specifically, cooperative learning with heterogeneous groups, concept understanding, and technology utilization help to eliminate any educational biases. They help to provide students a mathematical classroom that is equally accessible for all types of students. Therefore, by incorporating a reform, standard-based mathematics curriculum, teachers are able to positively address the issue of equity. These curriculums are based on the idea that all students are integrated.

    It is expected that classes will be composed of students with diverse mathematical abilities. The reform curriculums use those differences to further develop mathematical thought. Thus, these types of curriculums directly address the issues discussed in Public Law 94-142. These curriculums allow students that are not always successful in traditional mathematics classrooms the opportunity to learn and be mathematically successful. Reformed mathematics accomplishes this by realizing the fact that "you cannot teach a child everything, it is best to teach a child how to learn" (Perrone 31).

By allowing students to acquire problem solving skills and mathematical tools, we are providing them a foundation to build upon. We are providing them the tools necessary to continue learning and to "make learning their own, something internal and usable beyond school" (Perrone 32).

* Effective Cooperative Learning based on student collaboration

* "High Expectations and educational opportunities for all students" (NCTM 12)

* "Accommodating differences to help everyone learn mathematics" (NCTM 13)

* "Resources & support for all classrooms and all students" (NCTM 13)

* "Knowing that you cannot teach a child everything,, it is best to teach a
child how to learn" (Perrone 31)

* "Establish Individual Accountability" (Coxford et al. 30)

* Clear, well-organized directions are essential for effective group work

Individual accountability is also extremely important to maintain equity and respect individual differences. In order for cooperative learning to be successful, students must work collaboratively but also be individually accountable. By holding students accountable, it is more likely that all students in the group will equaly share the group's responsibilities. This ensures that no student is simply "along for the ride." It requires all students to have a grasp on the material that is covered.

One way that we found to ensure individual accountability is to hold every group member responsible to describe any aspect of the group's activity. Similarly, one could not designate the role of the reporter for a group until after the group activity is complete. Thus, all group members must be prepared to report their group's findings. This also helps to encourage group mentoring. If a group does not know who will be asked to report, students will be more likely to explain and discuss their ideas among all group members. They will also be more likely to help a group member who is struggling, for they might be the one chosen to report. Thus, again cooperative learning promotes the ideas equity by requiring individuals to be individually accountable.