A former president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics says that organization is to blame for the "disgraceful" math performance of American students.

Frank B. Allen, now a national adviser for the organization Mathematically Correct, cites the "dismal" performance of U.S. high school seniors in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. Out of 21 countries participating, they beat out only students from Cyprus and South Africa.

Allen charges that the NCTM has backed highly controversial methods of teaching before they have been tested, and has turned America's schools into experimental laboratories.

• While the organization backs early use of calculators in the classroom, the highest scoring countries on the TIMSS tests do not allow calculators to be used at an early point.

• NCTM has embraced such theories are "constructivism," whereby students in "cooperative learning" groups are expected to reconstruct the great ideas of the past -- starting at ground zero.

• The group has abandoned proofs and logic -- especially in geometry -- in favor of "higher-order thinking" and "mathematical reasoning."

• It has championed fuzzy "authentic" assessment systems that minimize the importance of correct answers and substitute subjective, inaccurate and unreliable grading techniques.

Finally, social engineering and self-esteem goals have produced algebra and geometry students who have difficulty with computation and are generally poorly prepared, Allen charges.

He says NCTM-based programs are worse than just fads -- "they are mistakes that have been systematized." Allen urges concerned parents around the country to follow California's lead. That state recently adopted standards "that clearly describe the mathematics that students are expected to learn in each grade in elementary school and in each subject in high school."