The State Board of Education is revising its math standards for kindergarten through 12th grade and seeks comments on a draft report from an educational research firm.

The report calls for tougher math standards. It concludes that some skills are taught too late, that not enough is expected of students, the mechanics of math get short shrift and that learning goals aren’t clear.

The state’s standards emphasize the conceptual too much, with not enough emphasis on the mechanics of math, the report says.

It also says that the state standards don’t make priorities clear in terms of which math concepts are more important and need more time, and says students should be able to apply math concepts in a practical way, rather than merely being asked to “understand” them.

As of June, about 39 percent of the class of 2008 had not passed the math section of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, or WASL.

This spring, the state Legislature voted to look at the 10-year-old math section of the Essential Academic Learning Requirements. The Legislature aims to have new math standard recommendations ready for review when they reconvene in January 2008.

Based on the report, the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, or OSPI, will draft new learning requirements for math. Then a Board of Education committee will recommend three to five commercial math programs that fit the new standards.

Currently, curriculum varies at districts across the state. Districts will still be able to chose their own curriculum after the recommendations are made.

The public can comment on the recommendation by sending e-mail to sbe@k12.wa.us by Aug. 5.

For a copy of the Strategic Teaching report, or more information, see www.sbe.wa.gov.