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Mathematics Standards Committee

Summary of Proceedings

February 26-27, 2004

The Committee met on February 26-27 in Albany with all 24 members present and did the following:

• Continued a by-grade-level discussion of what all students should know and be able to do in mathematics. Focused on both content and process standards.

• Discussed the public (and media) perceptions and incomplete understandings about psychometrics and reported test data. The critical reaction to the January Math A exam (number of questions needing to be answered correctly to pass) foreshadows the scrutiny of the Committee's standards.

• Reviewed and discussed standards information from 13 other states including content strands, grade-level groupings, desirable and undesirable features and implications for New York's standards.

• Critiqued New York's current standards -- by level -- in an effort to determine what to retain, eliminate or modify.

• Agreed to elicit feedback from some postsecondary institutions on the math preparation of incoming students.

• Worked toward a common language and a structure for a statewide framework of expectations for student knowledge and skills (content and process) in mathematics.

• Agreed on tentative content strands or key ideas to organize content and process standards; identified process standards.

• Began to construct a framework of performance areas organized by content strand and grade using information from national, New York and other states' standards.