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  • Steven T. Klass

    Steven T. Klass

    Candidate for Director, Elementary

    Position: Classroom teacher (grade 6), Park Dale Lane Elementary School, Encinitas (California) Union School District (EUSD) (1979–).

    Education: B.A. (sociology), University of California, San Diego (UCSD); Multiple Subjects Credential (State of California), UCSD; M.A. (curriculum emphasis in mathematics education), San Diego State University.

    Previous Experience: Teacher on loan from EUSD, San Diego State University (2001–09).

    Memberships: NCTM, TODOS: Mathematics for ALL, Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators, California Mathematics Council.

    Activities in NCTM: Member: Program Committee, Annual Meeting, Denver (2011–13), Program Committee, Regional Conference, Nashville (2008–09), and Grades 3–5 Development Team, Teaching with Curriculum Focal Points (2006–08).

    Other Activities: TODOS: chair, San Diego Area Student Awards (2006–2013) and member, National Student Awards Committee (2007–13); National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics: member, Program Committee, San Diego (2009–10); AMTE: member, Program Committee, Orlando (2008–09).

    Publications: Coauthor: “Designing Applets That Instantiate Effective Mathematics Pedagogy, Journal of Technology and Teacher Education (2011); Focus in Grades 3–5: Teaching with Curriculum Focal Points (NCTM 2008); Understanding Rational Numbers and Proportions (NCTM 1994); A Sampler of Mathematics Assessment (California Department of Education 1991).

    Honors: Outstanding Elementary Classroom Mathematics Teacher, Greater San Diego Mathematics Council (1993).

    Statement: As a full-time classroom teacher of elementary school sixth graders, I am well acquainted with the promises and challenges of the Common Core State Standards. Whether I’ve needed to create curriculum on the fly or evaluate student math outcomes for a one-to-one iPad implementation, it’s been a busy time.

    Mathematics may well be able to exist in a vacuum, but a mathematics organization for teachers can’t. Far too many of the teachers I’ve talked with or worked with during my 35 years of teaching tell me that they’ve never heard of NCTM when I ask if they have, and that’s just not right. As a Board member, I will make it my goal to ensure that more classroom teachers—particularly elementary teachers—know about NCTM and will seek us out whenever they are looking for advice and materials in mathematics curriculum and instruction. I believe that expanding NCTM’s influence among all teachers is a critical goal.

    By working together with Affiliates in every state and province, NCTM can reach even more practicing teachers. Every NCTM state and provincial Affiliate has a connection with NCTM, and those connections must be regularly nurtured and refreshed or they will not remain solid. In my own area, we lost a valuable resource and local NCTM Affiliate to that very fate. I will work with our Affiliates to increase NCTM’s collective strength.

    Finally, I am acutely aware of just how easily teachers can become isolated by classroom practice, so opportunities to have their voices heard by policymakers must be increased. As a Board member, I will make it one of my goals to increase the involvement of our membership of classroom teachers by finding more opportunities for their voices to be heard.