Modernizing Mathematics Curriculum: Michael Pearson and the Launch Years Initiative

This video is the third in a series of four that highlight the thinking of math education experts in relation to the Launch Years initiative.

Watch the first video, featuring Just Equations' executive director Pamela Burdman, here:
Rethinking the Role of Math: Pamela Burdman and the Launch Years Initiative

Watch the second video, featuring the Association of American Colleges and Universities' Tia McNair, here:
Building Equity in Math Education: Tia McNair and the Launch Years Initiative

One of the things that we face...is that we have really large systems of public schools and colleges and universities that were created around particular course structures, particular degree programs. So, restructuring those to support different pathways and different mechanisms means we really are going to have to rethink what it means to graduate from college, what it means to get a degree."

Michael Pearson is a mathematician and mathematics educator. He is executive director of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).

Pearson is also a member of the Launch Years Consensus Panel, a group of education leaders and advocates charged with guiding, developing, and promoting recommendations published in Launch Years: A New Vision for the Transition from High School to Postsecondary Mathematics.

In this new video, Pearson discusses the need to move beyond post-Sputnik-era curriculum design and course sequences in postsecondary mathematics education and provide students with instruction and training more suited to the needs of our 21st Century economy.

The Launch Years report is available as a free download. 

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