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Introduction

Presentation by Grover J. (Russ) Whitehurst, Director, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, at the Secretary's Mathematics Summit

This is the third education summit in the last year and a half at which I've had the role of summarizing scientific research. I'm honored to be here, but I have to tell you, this isn't getting any easier.

The present topic, mathematics, has been particularly challenging because the research base is relatively thin, there is a lot of controversy about what math children should learn and how they should be taught it, and there is a dearth of good work that directly addresses the needs of educators and policy makers.

As witness to the latter point, a superintendent of a large school district contacted me not long ago to ask if there was research that would help him select an elementary school math curriculum that would be effective for the types of children served by his district. He had just taken over as superintendent, and there was a lot riding on his curriculum decisions, both for him and for the children in the district. I had to tell him that there was no rigorous research on the efficacy of widely available elementary mathematics curricula, and that about all I could offer him was my opinion. He said thanks, but he had plenty of opinions already.

I am not saying that there is no quality research on the learning or teaching of mathematics or that the existing research is irrelevant to instructional decisions. Were that the case there would be nothing left for me to do now except sit down. However, I am saying that research on math is in its infancy compared, for example, to research on reading, and that what it provides for policy and practice is more in the way of educated guesses than strong direction.