National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

History

Founded in 1920 and currently comprising more than 100,000 individual members as well as over 2,230 affiliate organizations, NCTM ranks as arguably the largest, most influential professional organization of teachers in the world. The organization's current mission is to serve as a public voice for mathematics education and provide the vision, leadership, and professional development needed to support teachers. Through its publications and conferences, NCTM has evolved as an influential force on the teaching and learning of school mathematics in the United States and Canada.

The NCTM emerged from the Association of Teachers of Mathematics in the Middle States and Maryland. This latter group published its first Bulletin in July 1904, and then in September 1908 published the first issue of the journal Mathematics Teacher. The Mathematics Teacher became the official journal of NCTM at the organization's founding on February 24, 1920, at a meeting of the National Education Association in Cleveland, Ohio. Since its founding, NCTM has been governed by elected officers beginning with a president, vice president, secretary-treasurer, and board members to the current structure of presidentelect, president, past-president, board of directors, and an executive director.

The genesis of NCTM resulted from a perceived attack on school mathematics in the early 20th century by advocates seeking to reorganize secondary education around social efficiency goals related to vocational education. School mathematics in the 19th century served the practical needs of primary education and the interests of those fortunate enough to pursue secondary education. Mathematical education was promoted primarily as an academic endeavor and as a means of preparing young men for education at the collegiate level. The 1893 Committee of Ten report had firmly established the study of mathematics at the school level. The Vocational Education Act of 1917 and research on the transfer of abstract learning to practical applications represented a perceived threat to teachers of mathematics and to mathematicians who feared the potential of degrading mathematical study from formal learning to practical skill development. NCTM was founded so that future curricula and reforms could be derived from the wisdom of teachers of mathematics rather than from general educational reformers.

The early work of NCTM related to the establishment of commissions and recommendations related to the methods and materials for teaching mathematics as well as for the curriculum structure of school mathematics. Often these commissions worked jointly with the Mathematics Association of America, a professional organization of mathematicians. Increasing high school enrollments in the first half of the 20th century led to a need for curriculum that addressed a population beyond the college-bound students. New school structures, such as the junior high school, and the critical role of mathematics in school learning were key issues during this period.

...