Towards Design of Clarifying Equity Messages in Mathematics Reform

The introduction of the No Child Left Behind has brought renewed national attention to the persistence of achievement gaps in education and, in particularly, has challenged the mathematics education community to revisit its long stated commitment to removing achievement disparities in school mathematics. Longstanding equity messages in mathematics reform as encapsulated in the hallmark slogan, mathematics for all, have been articulated and widely circulated in reform documents over the last 20 years, but not well incorporated into many of the mathematics classrooms comprised of minority students, multi-language speakers, and students with disabilities. Employing an engineering mindset to frame the article, the purpose of this article is to illuminate some of the problematic features of equity articulation over the last 20 years, examine perspectives from two recent national meetings in Maryland and Washington, DC, and offer perspectives towards the design of a reconceptualized, more robust equity message. Seven constraints have been extracted from these perspectives. The constraints range from utilizing an outcome-focused definition of equity and an articulation of condition-based inequities, to incorporating a critical base of research and pedagogy. These constraints are discussed and future directions and applications for design are posed.