Adults’ views on mathematics education: a Midwest sample

Currently, few studies have addressed public opinions regarding math education. The current study surveyed adults in a Midwestern town in the United States to assess opinions regarding math and math education. Overall, we found that adults believe that math is useful and that math education is important. We found that parents who currently have a child in elementary school believed that math should be taught at an earlier age and were more supportive of parents being responsible for math education outside of the classroom than other participants. In this paper, we discuss some of the implications of these findings for math education.