Educational equity is a core element of this vision. Equity is interwoven with the other Principles. All students need access each year to a coherent, challenging mathematics curriculum taught by competent and well-supported mathematics teachers. Moreover, students' learning and achievement should be assessed and reported in ways that point to areas requiring prompt additional attention. Technology can assist in achieving equity and must be accessible to all students.
Equity requires high expectations and worthwhile opportunities for all.
The vision of equity in mathematics education challenges a pervasive societal belief in North America that only some students are capable of learning mathematics. Low expectations are especially problematic because students who live in poverty, students who are not native speakers of English, students with disabilities, females, and many nonwhite students have traditionally been far more likely than their counterparts in other demographic groups to be the victims of low expectations. The Equity Principle demands that high expectations for mathematics learning be communicated in words and deeds to all students. Teachers communicate expectations in their interactions with students during classroom instruction, through their comments on students' papers, when assigning students to instructional groups, through the presence or absence of consistent support for students who are striving for high levels of attainment, and in their contacts with significant adults in a student's life. These actions, along with decisions and actions taken outside the classroom to assign students to different classes or curricula, also determine students' opportunities to learn and influence students' beliefs about their own abilities to succeed in mathematics.