Some leaders reduce our math crisis to two words: test scores . For decades, hopes of progress were dashed by flat to declining scores . Full-bore panic about fading global competitiveness. Urgent calls for more drills, worksheets, and double-dose tutoring. Whatever it takes, get those test scores up.  But here’s the real crisis. We teach the wrong math and test it the wrong way. We devote thousands of hours to the obsolete rote math that pervades our high-stakes exams—math that students will never use as adults—while totally ignoring the math that defines our lives. This is a failed agenda set by math-confused policymakers, with a math-confused populace going along.   The very word “math” may jolt you back in time to high school. To algebra, geometry, trig, and—for the gifted—calculus. A blizzard of esoterica: factored polynomials, side-angle-side, irrational numbers, the chain rule. Worksheets honing our ability to execute few-step procedures quickly and accurately, by hand.…