Findings and Recommendations of Instructional Materials

Committee

I. U.S. mathematics textbooks are extremely long

A. Even elementary school textbooks sometimes exceed 700 pages

B. Middle and high school textbooks typically 600-900 pages

C. Often exceed 1,000 pages with study guides and answers

II. Extreme length not necessary for effective instruction

A. Far shorter textbooks (e.g., 250 pages) in countries with much higher math achievement

B. U.S. math textbooks used to be much shorter

C. Extreme length both reflects and contributes to mile wide inch deep curriculum

III. Reasons for extreme length

A. Varying state standards lead publishers to include in national edition all topics covered by any state in that grade

B. State-specific textbooks in Texas, Florida, and California are 200-250 pages shorter

C. Photos, anecdotes, applications with little math content add to length

IV. Costs of extreme length

A. Wasted moneyB. Wasted paper and energyC. Back strain and refusal to lug books

home to do homework (?)

IV. Costs of extreme length, cont’d.

D. Reduced coherence of presentation (!)1. Almost impossible to build coherent

argument from one chapter to next if cannot anticipate order in which students read chapters

2. Increases students’ difficulty in understanding high level organization of course

V. Recommendations

A. More efforts by publishers to produce state or region specific editions

B. Adoption of common standards by multiple states to make “region specific” editions feasible

C. Reduction of material not essential to math learning