mathleague.org Values
At mathleague.org, we embrace a set of core values that inform all aspects of how we operate. We articulate these core values in terms of excellence, integrity, trust, and community. These ideas are all interconnected, and it is not always easy to separate them, but here is, as best we can put into words, what they mean to us. We encourage our stakeholders to reflect on these values as well and how they can be used to promote positive actions that better the world around us.
Excellence is the foundation of everything we do. It drives our commitment to constant self-improvement, inspiring both students and staff to persevere in their pursuit of knowledge. We believe that excellence is not just about getting the math right but also about embracing innovation, recognizing achievements, and ensuring coherence in both thought and action. Whether it's through fostering initiative or celebrating progress, our goal is to create an environment where excellence is cultivated and recognized, pushing the boundaries of what our students can achieve.
Integrity means that we strive to create an atmosphere where doing the right thing is valued above all else, and we encourage both students and staff to act with courage in the face of challenges. Integrity also means rigorously promoting and defending fairness: We craft rules and policies for our competitions that ensure students are competing on a level playing field, and that the results of a contest are determined by students' mathematical work on that contest. We enforce those rules consistently and evenhandedly, and we put them in place not arbitrarily but for specific reasons that are necessary for the fairness and smooth operation of our contests.
Trust is closely related to integrity, and is about making sure that students, teachers, parents, and others who interact with us have confidence in our operations and practices and that we are upholding these values. Communication and transparency are essential, and we strive to be as straightforward as possible with our constituents in the interest of building trust. We also publish solutions to the problems on every contest to ensure trust in the mathematical reasoning behind them, and we make these solutions as easy as possible to understand and learn from.
Community means that math contests should be a place where students can make connections with each other and grow as human beings. We strive to promote an ethos of mutual improvement, in which students cheer each other on and work together to grow their skills, even as competition and scoring provide concrete goals to aim for. We also write problems at a wide variety of difficulty levels, so that every student at every contest can both accomplish something and learn something. Community requires that every student be welcomed and respected for who they are at our contests, and we commit to upholding this principle without exception.
Finally, as part of all four of these values, we acknowledge that we will not always be perfect. Integrity requires that we recognize this and take responsibility for our mistakes when they happen. As part of a community, we grow along with our students, teachers, parents, and others. We build trust by being transparent about our imperfections and how we will avoid them in the future. And our commitment to excellence means incorporating new ideas, learning from our mistakes and successes, and continuously improving all aspects of what we do.
