Abstract. This introduction sets the scene for the remainder of the book
by considering first the international context of widespread concern
about the improvement of numeracy skills. This is related to reform
movements in the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries
aimed at modernising primary (elementary) school mathematics curricula.
A detailed account is given of the National Numeracy Strategy in
England, a systemic government-imposed response to concern about
standards implemented in 1999/2000. This includes a discussion of the
alternative meanings of numeracy. An earlier initiative sponsored by a
United Kingdom charitable trust reacting to concern about primary
numeracy was the Leverhulme Numeracy Research Programme. This
large-scale longitudinal study and linked set of case-study projects,
focusing on reasons for low attainment, took place during 1997-2002.
This book, and each other in the same series, is based on results of
that research. The timescale fortuitously enabled the research team to
also report on some effects of the systemic reform in the National
Numeracy Strategy. 1. THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT In many countries, there
are recurring periods of national concern about the low standards of
calculation skills shown by children in primary (elementary) schools.
Recently, these concerns have become more urgent and more political with
the publication of international comparisons of mathematical
achievement, first at secondary and more recently at primary level (e.
g. Lapointe, Mead, & Askew 1992; Mullis et al., 1997).
