24).
In order to speak specifically to grade level, the process standards were broken down by grade spans. The middle school grades were represented by standards 5-8, as these are commonly the grades that represent middle school. This presentation of process standards specifically presented by grade levels were called content standards. These were updated in 2000 as well. The 1989 content standards included the following ten standards: number and number relationships, number systems and theory, computation and estimation, patterns and functions, algebra, statistics, probability, geometry, and measurement. In 2000, those ten standards continued to be fully represented, however they were pared down to five areas: number and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and data analysis (Krulic, 2003, p. 21). Major changes occurred...
One major change was a shift in the attitude and expectations for computations. Though computations were still taught, they were no longer taught until mastery in lieu of higher level concepts, as had been done in the past (Krulic, 2003, p. 25). Arguably the largest change was the degree to which algebra was being included (krulic, 2003, p. 26). The updates in 2000 hoped to provide students a new way of thinking about mathematics, rather than simply focusing on rote memorization and answers.
NCTM's Agenda to Action was much needed at the time it was created. As years have passed, and society has gone from industry and farming to technology and information, so have the curriculum standards of the past. The updates presented in 2000 have provided students a way to think differently about mathematics,…
