Soon after, renewed attention was given to what a quality mathematics education would look like. Furthermore, one of NCTM's original Standards documents, the Assessment Standards for School Mathematics, carefully describes how multiple assessments should be used to promote students' learning and monitor program improvements. Tests are an important component in promoting students' success in mathematics, but they must be used carefully. Test results may reveal very little about students' understanding of mathematics if the test's objectives are narrowly focused. Scores can rise without improvements in the broader, usually more important, set of academic knowledge, skills, and understanding essential to being successful in the real world.
Scores can fall in spite of true academic progress.
And when such tests are used to make major decisions about a child's future, they undermine the quality of education and the equality of opportunity. A top ranking in mathematics performance among the countries of the world must be seen as the by-product of establishing a sound educational approach to the concerns we all have about our students' performance in school mathematics. Our nations' students, teachers, and schools deserve substantive teaching and learning. Let's build on the vision of Principles and Standards for School Mathematics to improve, for the long haul, the way we teach and the way students learn mathematics in the United States and Canada. We know what we need to do.