Our Work

Mission and Vision

We articulate our mission and vision to guide effective leadership in mathematics education. We are dedicated to equity, continuous improvement, and helping educators create lasting impact. We highlight collaboration, shared goals, and meaningful learning for every student.

NCSM is a mathematics education leadership organization that equips and empowers a diverse education community to engage in leadership that supports, sustains, and inspires high quality mathematics teaching and learning every day for each and every learner.

NCSM is the premier mathematics education leadership organization. Our bold leadership in the mathematics education community develops vision, ensures support, and guarantees that all students engage in equitable, high-quality mathematical experiences that lead to powerful, flexible uses of mathematical understanding to affect their lives and to improve the world.

High quality leadership is vital to this vision. NCSM is committed to:

Developing and Informing Vision

  • Provide leadership to influence issues and policies affecting mathematics education in ways consistent with the mission and vision of NCSM;
  • Equip leaders to be critical consumers of educational information, research, and policy to become change agents in their communities;
  • Support leaders to develop an actionable vision of mathematics instruction consistent with a view of mathematics as a sense-making endeavor.

Ensuring Support to All Stakeholders

  • Develop networking and communication opportunities that connect the mathematics education community, as well as the broader education community;
  • Equip leaders with the tools to create and sustain systems that fully align with the vision of mathematics and mathematics instruction promoted by NCSM;
  • Equip leaders with the understanding, knowledge, and skills to continue their own personal growth, support emerging leaders, and further develop excellence in mathematics teaching.

Guaranteeing All Students Engage in Equitable, High-Quality Mathematical Experiences

  • Provide advocacy and support regarding issues and policies affecting mathematics education in ways consistent with the mission and vision of NCSM;
  • Provide resources for implementation of research-informed instruction to ensure students engage in relevant and meaningful learning experiences that promote mathematics as a sense-making endeavor;
  • Advocate for each and every student to have access to rigorous mathematics that develops their understanding, skills, and knowledge, along with the confidence to leverage their learning, in order to improve their world.

Equity is creating the conditions, structures, and policies necessary to ensure that all students have relevant, meaningful, and high-quality sets of mathematical experiences, facilitated through effective teaching and learning practices with high expectations and the support and resources needed to maximize student learning. (NCSM, 2020, p. 111)

Our goal is to create learning spaces where it is no longer possible “to predict mathematics achievement and participation based solely on student characteristics such as race, class, ethnicity, sex, beliefs, and proficiency in the dominant language.” (Gutiérrez, 2002, p. 153)