Date: March 13th 2008

>>> "Martin, Danny" <dbmartin@uic.edu> 03/13/08 10:38 PM >>>

If folks have not seen the final NMP report, it is attached. It is interesting to note the move toward experimental studies of interventions with African American students. It is also interesting to note?if my reading of the references is correct?that not a single African American math education scholar was cited. I also did a word search and "equity" had zero hits. The section on social, emotional, and affective factors is especially weak, with its emphasis on "math anxiety." The chapter on teachers and teacher education ignores everything that has been generated about culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy. The chapter is merely a commercial for one strand of research carried out, essentially, by one researcher and colleagues. Surely, that is not the definitive word on mathematics teaching and the preparation of mathematics teachers for African American children. I'll mention one more interesting observation: the simultaneous discussion of "low achievers" and "students with disabilities." If you can read that juxtaposition without hearkening back to the work of Deutsch and associates in the 1960's, more power to you. I'm assuming low-achievers is coded language and that advocating for "explicit methods of instruction" (p. 48) will have interesting implications for African American children. Scary, scary stuff. Clearly, these are my opinions, but I encourage folks to read the report with a critical eye and keeping the interests of black children at the forefront of their thinking.

-dm

Danny Bernard Martin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Mathematics Education and Mathematics Chair, Curriculum and Instruction
Faculty Affiliate, African American Studies

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Not a question of what is true, but what is made to be true. Such is the way in which racial discourses operate - Stuart Hall