Mathematics News in Brief

NCTM Urges Caution in Using Open Resources

By Jaclyn Zubrzycki — November 15, 2016 1 min read
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The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics is warning of risks that arise when schools rely too heavily on open educational resources.

In a statement released late last month, the organization spells out the need for a “coherent, well-articulated curriculum ... for guiding teacher collaboration, goal-setting, analysis of student thinking, and implementation.”

The statement highlights three major challenges in using the free materials: Teachers may not receive support for creating coherent learning progressions out of the open resources; the quality of resources will vary even more extremely from school to school, presenting an equity challenge; and open education resources won’t offer communities the chance to vet and consider different academic programs.

A version of this article appeared in the November 16, 2016 edition of Education Week as NCTM Urges Caution in Using Open Resources

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