by Laura Wagenman, MCTM President December 20, 2025
The Minnesota Council of Teachers of Mathematics fully supports the recently released position paper Strengthening Research-informed Decision Making for Mathematics Education, by the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics.
We rigorously request that we continue to make decisions for our students grounded in well-rounded research and practices that center rigorous learning so our Minnesota Career, College and Community ready students will:
• Be curious, pose questions and seek patterns in order to make sense of their world.
• Communicate their mathematical thinking and contribute to high level math discussions.
• Be persistent, flexible, collaborative and creative problem solvers.
• Make connections between mathematics concepts and other disciplines, experiences outside the classroom, interests and career aspirations, as well as the connections amongst mathematical ideas.
• Build conceptual understanding, thinking and reasoning in order to develop procedural fluency and flexible problem-solving strategies.
• Collaborate with cultural perspectives and traditions like and unlike one’s own, allowing students to make sense of mathematical concepts and value various mathematical identities connected to lived experiences.
As we implement our Minnesota 2022 Math Standards, we must critically examine research claims that connect the Science of Reading to the science of math website as outlined in the above position statement;
The “science of math” is not equivalent to the Science of Reading as an established body of research with respect to multidisciplinary expertise.
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The “science of math” has engaged in misleading research citational practice.
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The “science of math” does not reflect the education research base with respect to relevant forms of evidence and forwards a narrow view of the goals and possibilities for school mathematics.
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The “science of math” elevates an impoverished pedagogical approach to the exclusion of all other forms of teaching.
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The “science of math” ignores the full complexity of learning environments and learners faced by teachers and school leaders, providing a one-size-fits-all answer.
Respectfully,
Laura Wagenman
Instructional Assistant/Coach
President, Minnesota Council of Teachers of Mathematics
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