Early Childhood Corner: Preschool and Kindergarten Mathematics: A National Conference

Abstract

NCTM's Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (2000) addresses preschool mathematics education, which is a first for the NCTM's Standards documents. We celebrate this initial coverage but wonder whether Principles and Standards has enough detail for early childhood teachers and caregivers. We are concerned that although the document offers a good start, it might not provide sufficient guidelines. Without these guidelines, we face the danger that a wide variety of incoherent standards will be produced, some of which may be developmentally inappropriate. A lack of consistency across various standards and guidelines will continue to result in “mile wide and inch deep” curricula (National Center for Education Statistics 1996) as publishers struggle to meet a variety of different content standards and guidelines. Because we believe in the importance of supporting early communication and coordinating efforts among educational leaders and agencies, we held a national Conference on Standards for Preschool and Kindergarten Mathematics Education in May 2000, in Arlington, Virginia.