PHILOSOPHY

K-12 Mathematics

Mathematics permeates all sectors of life and occupies a well-established position in curriculum and instruction. We believe that schools must assume responsibility for empowering students with the mathematical concepts and skills necessary for functioning in and contributing to today's complex society.

An effective mathematics program provides a curriculum that is developmentally appropriate and is designed to meet students' intellectual, social, and emotional needs. The curriculum should be conceptually oriented, and contain a broad range of content. Curriculum activities should allow all students to experience success and to build positive attitudes towards mathematics and towards themselves as mathematical problem solvers. Development of students' abilities to reason, to solve problems, to connect their learning to the real world and to communicate their understanding of mathematical concepts should be among the major foci of the curriculum.

We believe that the value and meaning of mathematics is an outgrowth of the real-life situations in which the concept of number plays a part. Instruction should emphasize the application of mathematics to real world problems and should allow for the use of technology in problem solving. Students should be given opportunities to construct their own mathematical understandings through the use of concrete materials and interaction with their peers as they participate in cooperative learning experiences.

Assessment opportunities abound as students engage in "doing" mathematics. Just as musicians perform for their director, students perform mathematics tasks, projects and investigations for their teachers. These performances provide clear evidence of both the processes and products of students' thinking.

An effective mathematics program provides an assessment component that is an integral part of instruction. Information gathered through the assessment process can then be used by teachers to plan for subsequent instruction and by students for self-assessment. The inherent value of this assessment information is its use in planning and adapting instruction and in informing students about their abilities to use mathematics to solve problems.

We believe that effective assessment occurs in a variety of situations and utilizes rich tasks that allow students to demonstrate what they know and can do. These assessment tasks may often lend themselves to being scored by a rubric, reflect significant mathematics and allow for a variety of approaches to a solution. In addition, assessment tasks should lead to other related tasks and promote persistence in problem solving.

Fulton County's K-12 Mathematics Curriculum and Assessment encourages students to invent, model and communicate their own mathematics. The curriculum and assessment components are closely aligned to encourage students to demonstrate and celebrate their knowledge of concepts, procedures, and problem solving skills, as well as developing their abilities to reason and to communicate about mathematics. The assessment component adds definition and meaning to the curriculum by allowing students to actively demonstrate skills and abilities incorporated in daily instruction.