Recognizing the importance of mathematics literacy, the SCANS report (Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, 1991, p. xvi) considered mathematics and computational skills essential since virtually all "employees will be required to maintain records, estimate results, use spreadsheets, or apply statistical process controls as they negotiate, identify trends, or suggest new courses of action." The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) agreed. In 1996, SIAM reported an overwhelming prevalence of mathematics applications in a variety of industrial settings including materials processing, automobile design, medical diagnosis, development of financial products, network management, and weather prediction. It also attested to the pervasive role of mathematics in real-world problems and noted that in many instances it is not even explicitly labeled as mathematics. Most importantly, SIAM outlined desirable employee qualities that aligned closely with the SCANS skills, including "formulating, modeling, and solving problems from diverse and changing areas; interest in, knowledge of, and flexibility across applications; knowledge of and experience with computations; communication skills, spoken and written; adeptness at working with colleagues (`teamwork')" (p. 2). SIAM and SCANS both concluded that workers lack these skills and called for students to acquire a deeper understanding of real-world applications of mathematics.
In today's rapidly advancing technological world, knowledge of mathematics is imperative. However, it is clear students are still experiencing traditional curriculum and instruction and are ill prepared for the realities of the 21st century. The challenge is to break traditional molds of curriculum and instruction and shift toward a holistic approach that emphasizes knowledge and skills that connect students with the world around them and build powerful understandings of both mathematics and its applications (Newmann, Secada, & Wehlage, 1995; Romberg, 1992; Rothman, 1995). In the early 1980s, the National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983) concluded that serious educational reforms were necessary to prepare future generations with problem solving, higher-order thinking, and communication skills as well as to help students develop an understanding of academic knowledge grounded in real-world situations. Further, the National Education Goals Panel (1992) set the goal of American students becoming "first in the world in mathematics and science achievement by the year 2000" (p. 101). But we are far from successfully implementing education reform and realizing such an ambitious goal.
Reacting to these issues, mathematics educators understood it was time to revisit current mathematics curriculum and teaching practices. Concurrently, vocational-technical educators embarked on a similar journey in response to new demands in workplace skills requiring rigorous applications of academic knowledge. The potential for linking mathematics and vocational education reforms was, for the first time, a promising equation.