The Common Vision project brought together leaders from five professional associations — the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC), the American Mathematical Society (AMS), the American Statistical Association (ASA), the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) — to collectively reconsider undergraduate curricula and ways to improve education in the mathematical sciences. Project participants represented not only these mathematical sciences associations, but also partner STEM disciplines, higher education advocacy organizations, and industry.
We began with an in-depth examination of seven curricular guides published by these five associations and spent a substantial amount of time identifying common themes in the guides. This report reflects a synthesis of these themes with our own research and input from project participants and other thought leaders in our community. One of the most striking findings is that all seven guides emphasized this point, in particular: The status quo is unacceptable.
Consequently, this report focuses on specific areas that require significant further action from the mathematical sciences community to improve undergraduate learning, especially in courses typically taken in the first two years. These areas fall into one of four categories: curricula, course structure, workforce preparation, and faculty development.
