Some Challenges Facing Mathematics Education in the United States of America

This paper is based on a talk made at the National Chiayi University in Taiwan in January 2006. After presenting my list of challenges, I asked the audience to make a list of challenges mathematics educators are currently facing in Taiwan. As these discussions evolved, it became clear that many of the challenges I identified are also being faced in Taiwan. While solutions to these challenges are formidable, we know that one of the first steps in solving any problem is understanding and recognizing that a problem exists. In that spirit, I am sharing these challenges in a written form. Perhaps identifying these challenges will accelerate efforts to solve them.