Sarah Lubienski | SMEC 2010

Promoting Equity through Problem Solving: Results from Two Decades of Mathematics Instructional Reform in the United States. slides

Over the past two decades, reformers in the United States have promoted new standards for mathematics instruction that involve less memorization and practice of procedures and more real world problem solving, discourse, and conceptual understanding.  These reforms appear to enhance overall achievement and are intended to promote greater equity.  However, research has revealed some ways in which inquiry-oriented instruction can pose additional barriers for less advantaged students. This presentation highlights research on U.S. student achievement, instruction, and equity over the past two decades of reform, and will highlight ways in which educational leaders can enhance mathematics instruction while avoiding dangerous pitfalls.

Biography

My scholarship centers around intersections of education and equity, focusing on mathematics achievement, instruction, and reform. I have studied these issues in both quantitative and qualitative ways, with my most recent work focusing on large-scale trends related to social class, race/ethnicity, and gender, using NAEP and ECLS-K data. My work on identifying powerful SES-related indicators also spurred a line of research on public-private school differences in instruction and mathematics achievement.

Through these and other studies, I have illuminated inequities in diverse students' experiences at home, in the mathematics classroom and in their mathematics outcomes. My findings challenge the field to attend to the struggles that marginalized students, parents, and their teachers face daily. I also write about the nature of education research, itself, analyzing the ways in which education researchers approach and avoid difficult issues of socioeconomic disparities.