Professor Steve Sparks give his reflections on his term
as Chair of ACME.
In this post I reflect on my time as Chair of ACME over the last
three years. I started in February 2012 at a time of frenetic
educational reform. I was initially told that the mathematics
community needed to present a cohesive voice on mathematics
education policy and this had been one of the main reasons for ACME
being set up in 2002. I found, in fact, that the community was
supportive and coherent on the majority of issues. Above all, I
found a tremendous passion and commitment to improve the quality of
mathematics education, exemplified by ACME members and within the wider
community.
There was also agreement that as a country we could do much
better in mathematics education. As with any subject that matters,
there will be passionately held differences of view but there is
much more that unites than divides in developing a national
consensus on where mathematics education should be going. On a
personal note I feel privileged to have met so many knowledgeable
and committed people. I also greatly appreciate the high calibre
and dedication of the ACME Secretariat who have worked tirelessly
behind the scenes to produce quality publications and invaluable
knowledge of the policy process. I have also had a great number of
opportunities to work with those interested in mathematics within
and beyond the STEM community.
There is, though, one emergent issue, which needs further
thought. In recent years the process of fragmentation of expert
advice has accelerated. This shift has been part of an increasingly
complex and incoherent landscape. The case for ACME continuing its
role as an authoritative source of policy expertise on mathematics
education, supported by the major organisations in the mathematics
community is indeed even greater.
There is now, in almost all areas of life, a much greater
emphasis on demonstrating impact. What has ACME achieved? In the
past years ACME had to spend much of its time responding to a
myriad of consultations on reforms that affected mathematics
education across the entire 3 to 19 age range. ACME is concerned
about the pace of reform and issues of co-ordination and has made
its views known. However, influence can also be subtle and much of
what a body like ACME does is behind the scenes, achieved through
dialogue and exposing key people in government and education to
evidence and ideas. Part of ACME's work can be persuading
government or others not to do things that would have untended
consequences. This is typically more difficult if the proposed
reform or change has been widely publicised. As one example, ACME
consistently argued that the speed of reform of GSCE
and A levels was too fast and not coordinated across all
subjects. Indeed had the Government's original time table gone
forward then about 100,000 young people would have taken the
reformed A level after having done the old rather than the expanded
new GCSE. Fortunately, eventually, the Government postponed the new
A level Mathematics and Further Mathematics until 2017 avoiding
this disconnect in mathematics, although other subjects are being
reformed to different timetables.
ACME has also worked on several major proactive projects over
the last 3 years or so. The highlight is perhaps the
post-16 mathematics agenda, where two major ACME reports
influenced some key and essential reform. This work also involved
dialogue with ministers, opposition parties and other opinion
formers. ACME also successfully facilitated the work of an
expert group for the Department for Education who produced
guidelines for new qualifications. The result is new
Core Maths qualifications. If this initiative is successful
then in a few years' time many of the 250,000 or so students who
obtain a B or C at GCSE will be continuing some maths post-16 and
the UK will no longer be an outlier in comparison to other
countries.
I have been elected to Council
of the Royal Society and will attend Education Committee on
behalf of Council. I look forward to continuing to contribute to
mathematics and science education. The new Chair of ACME
is a colleague in geosciences, Professor
Philip England FRS and I am confident ACME will thrive under
Philip's leadership.