This book offers a broad view for a varied audience of what the vision expressed in all three National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Standards documents will look like when aligned with practice and outlines ways in which desired changes can be realized. Six sections and 21 chapters in the book are: Section I--History: (1) "Paths to the Present" (J. Kilpatrick, G. M. A. Stanic); Section II--Students: (2) "How Primary Students Think and Learn" (P. F. Campbell, M. L. Johnson), (3) "What Secondary Mathematics Students Can Do" (R. Borasi), (4) "Empowering All Students to Learn Mathematics" (G. J. Cuevas), (5) "Opportunity to Learn: Can Standards-Based Reform Be Equity-Based Reform?" (J. Oakes), (6) "Mathematics Excellence for Cultural 'Minority' Students: What Is the Problem?" (A. G. Hilliard III), and (7) "Trends in Mathematics Achievement for Young Men and Women" (N. Burton); Section III--Teachers and Teaching: (8) "How Should Mathematics Be Taught?" (G. Lappan, D. Briars), (9) "Teacher Preparation" (J. O. Swafford), (10) "Who Will Teach?" (S. M. McBay), (11) "The Highway to Personal Professional Development" (L. C. Bolster), and (12) "The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: Making Professional Development 'Professional'" (J. A. Kelly); Section IV--Conent: (13) "Mathematics for Work and Life" (L. A. Steen, S. L. Forman), (14) "Changing the Mathematics We Teach" (C. Seeley), and (15) "Rich Conent" (R. P. Mills); Section V--Context: (16) "Schooling U.S.A." (J. I. Goodlad), (17) "Standards-Based Reform" (W. S. Cody), (18) "Challenges for Education Policy at the Turn of the Century" (S. H. Fuhrman), (19) "The Business and Industry Perspective" (D. Kearns), and (20) "The Public as Constituents" (R. Brown); and Section VI Afterword: (21) "The Workforce" (R. B. Reich). Each chapter contains a bibliography. (MKR)