All students can learn.
All students possess some information on which to build mathematical understanding and to improve their skills. Students must be allowed to work at an operational level that is necessary for their successful understanding and performance. While skills can be practiced in isolation, their applications to real life situations are essential for understanding the power and purpose of arithmetic. As students move through the grades, each teacher should review all the skills each year because students will move from more concrete methods to more abstract methods as they practice their skills and as they develop better understanding. As students encounter new skills that contain difficult concepts, they need to move to a more concrete method of operation which will allow for successful understanding and performance.