Like those in the first publication, the updated recommendations became the basis for many states' mathematics standards, and the method in textbooks developed by many federally-funded projects.
[3] Reform texts emphasize written and verbal communication, working in cooperative groups, and making connections between concepts and between representations.
Research has shown that children make fewer mistakes with calculations and remember algorithms longer when they understand the concepts underlying the methods they use.
Parents, educators and some mathematicians opposing reform mathematics complained about students becoming confused and frustrated, claiming that the style of instruction was inefficient and characterized by frequent false starts.
[15] During the 1990s, the large-scale adoption of curricula such as Mathland was criticized for partially or entirely abandoning teaching of standard arithmetic methods such as practicing regrouping or finding common denominators.
The American Institutes for Research (AIR) reported in 2005 that the NCTM proposals "risk exposing students to unrealistically advanced mathematics content in the early grades.
[17] In 2006 NCTM published its Curriculum Focal Points, which made clear that standard algorithms, as well as activities aiming at conceptual understanding, were to be included in all elementary school curricula.
Even the controversial NCTM Standards of 1989 did not call for abandoning standard algorithms, but instead recommended a decreased emphasis on complex paper-and-pencil computation drills, and an increased emphasis on mental computation, estimation skills, thinking strategies for mastering basic facts, and conceptual understanding of arithmetic operations.