In Seattle the Key books Discovery Math Series is coming in for hard times. Guess what series of books is used for math in the St. Vrain Valley School District? Yep, that would be the one. From a recent editorial in the Seattle times…
FINALLY someone has stood up to the institutional urge at Seattle Public Schools to adopt constructivist or reform math: Judge Julie Spector of King County Superior Court ruled Thursday that the district’s adoption of the Discovering series of high-school math texts was “arbitrary” and “capricious.”
This is a kind of judicial activism, and as a method of selecting or rejecting math books it makes us uneasy. Normally a judge would defer to the School Board. But the four members on the School Board who voted for the books were deferring as well.
And here is a news based article on the Judge’s ruling.
Seattle’s so-called “Discovery” math curriculum doesn’t add up for a King County Superior Court judge, who rejected the style of instruction Thursday and ordered the district to try again.
Last May, the School board implemented a district-wide math curriculum called Discovering Math. The curriculum was part of a five-year strategic plan that Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson created.
But Judge Julie Spector ruled Thursday that the board’s decision to use the Discovering series was arbitrary and capricious. She ordered the board to reconsider the matter.
skipping down the article…
In her ruling, Spector noted that the state’s Board of Education had declared the curriculum “mathematically unsound” and that the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction did not recommend the curriculum.
And she said WASL schools from a similar inquiry-based math at Cleveland and Garfield High Schools showed that test scores declined and dropped significantly for students who were learning English, including a zero percent pass rate at one school.
The Discovery series textbooks started appearing in classrooms across the country in 2007.
(emphasis added – ed)
Color me ill with the garbage that passes for math in the St. Vrain school district. From elementary school and Everyday Math to Discovery Math it achieves no useful purpose except for teachers to hide in their own little arrogant cocoon and do it their way. It’s time for the St. Vrain School board to grab the reigns of their out of control math program and get it under control. At the schools that have a choice in math curriculum, you have a choice of “investigative math on steroids” (IMP – Interactive Math Program) and standard investigative math. Nothing close to something that could come close to passing for “traditional” math.
My experience with “Discovery” and “Investigations” math is it makes relatively simple math concepts exceptionally tedious and difficult.
h/t to Kitchen Table Math.
as seen in the Bellevue Reporter article is the following comment:
Ivaylo Ivanov
The high school math curriculum in the Bellevue School District is garbage. A year ago, my parents divorced, and as a result I had to move to a town on the outskirts of Houston. The math curriculum here is just that: math. Actual math that the rest of the world does. Needless to say, I was not prepared to do this type of math, having attended Newport, which is supposedly one of the best high schools in the country.
The school district needs to implement a curriculum that teaches its students math, and not one that provides students with extra opportunities for socializing during these “group investigations” that the students are so used to doing.
Some of the evidence in Seattle that the board cared to over look included the continually growing achievement gap in k-8 that this new program aligned to so well.
k-5 gap as measured by grade 4 Math WASL testing showed TERC/Investigations enlarging the gap greatly and then with the change to Everyday math beginning SY 2007-2008 the gap kept right on growing in Spring 2008 & Spring 2009 testing.
Naturally Connected Math is used in Seattle Middle Schools … thus there is no way Central Staff would recommend anything other than an “Inquiry” approach in High School as Real Math texts in high school would expose the fact the kids know very little math entering high school and are only equipped for math appreciation.
The are fabulously well prepared for further socializing during these “group investigations”. Our schools are certainly producing graduates that will be the hit of the coffee break should they ever find employment.
Dan, thanks for stopping by and the comment. The students comment strikes a chord with me. Some time back I tested Algebra students on their math facts (i.e. multiplication). The students who did the best were from outside the school district (private schools, one student was from a Texas school district interestingly enough, and others were from foriegn countries).