Where’s The Math?

Parents in the LWSD are gathering signatures on a letter (see below) thanking the incoming superintendent for making math improvements a top priority. It expresses parents’ concerns and offers suggestions for improvement.

If you’re a LWSD resident, please join us this Monday night (June 4) at 7:00PM when LWSD parents will be speaking and presenting our letter to Superintendent Kimball and the school board. Please come and show your support by speaking or just cheering others on. Representatives Anderson, Rodney and Senator Pflug will attend and it will be covered by local news media.

L.E. Scarr Resource Center, 16250 NE 74th St., Redmond, WA 98052
MAP   Driving Directions

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The Seattle SD will providing a Singapore workbook for each child, and a teachers manual for each teacher. The school board will also create a parent advisory panel and got many assurances from the administration that calculators will be used sparingly.

The school board repeatedly thanked Rick Burke for his research and help. Rick, and all the rest of you Seattle people deserve a big pat on the back.
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Seattle Times Editorial

“… The Seattle School Board has scheduled a meeting at 6 p.m. today to select a new math program for the elementary schools. The decision would be made before new state standards are in place, before the new district superintendent is in her job and before Seattle voters have had a chance to realign the School Board. It would be best to delay this decision until those things are done first. …”
Read more in the Seattle Times

by Robert Femiano and Danaher Dempsey Jr.

The Seattle School Board is poised to make its most important academic decision in decades: whether to remain on the reform math bandwagon. We urge members to look beneath the glittery wrapping of Reform math, learn the lessons of California, Massachusetts and Indiana and not adopt more “inquiry-based” math programs.

Sometimes called “discovery” or “investigative” math, reform math has students constructing their own understanding of math concepts. Unfortunately, the more efficient traditional algorithms (such as long division), along with automatic factual recall and mental manipulations, are generally downplayed in the teacher’s handbook with a “why bother” deference to the ubiquitous calculator.
Read more in the Seattle PI

Math Education: Take new course

Seattle PI Editorial

Seattle Public Schools needs to make a new math curriculum plus support for teachers add up to student success.

At a meeting Wednesday, the School Board will consider adoption of a new math curriculum for its elementary schools throughout the city. The proposal deserves adoption to provide a new approach in Seattle, where, as in many places, students’ math gains have been far slower than those in reading and writing.
Read more in the Seattle PI

New Curriculum Has Some Parents So Concerned, They’re Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands

WATCH CBS EVENING NEWS VIDEO

The Bellevue group of Where’s The Math is having a community get-together:

Wednesday evening, May 30, 7:00pm - 8:30pm
9857 NE 20th St, Bellevue

This week, the Bellevue School District announced a new elementary pilot program for Fall 2007 to include Everyday Math and Math Expressions. Come hear about this and other developments in our district, and discuss how we can influence better choices in future.

We will share ideas and meet other concerned parents both within and across Bellevue schools, from elementary through high school. Post-meeting socializing and discussions may continue until 9:15pm.

Bring
other concerned community members,
your favorite math textbooks,
your thoughts about improving math in our district, and
your ideas about influencing the school board — note that there are 3 seats up for election this fall.

We hope to see you there!

RSVP to bellevue@wheresthemath.com

Here’s a clip of the Simpsons’ take on math from episode 17×19, Girls Just Want To Have Sums

This is just to update those who were not able to attend the NSD SB meeting (5/22) about the evening’s math related events.

1. Timbercrest Jr. High, coincidentally, had a presentation of its math program. Some highlights of its presentation: [my comments in blue]

• Focus on more teacher training – Math Dept. Chair was really excited that they will put more $$ in teacher training, but they don’t spend any more $$ on getting new texts that stress efficient & time-tested standard math algorithms. So, their teachers are going to be really great at teaching an inefficient and inferior math program. A study conducted by the U WA indicated that:
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by David Ammons

… Now the teachers union is ready to dump its old colleague in the next election – and hope to pressure her into not even running again. . … They say Bergeson has two problems: She’s obsessed with the WASL and has failed to produce big budget gains.

Bergeson is exasperated, too, with the union and lawmakers. She defends education reform, including the test, and says she won’t be a party to watering it down. “I’m always trying to get the union to be a force for change for the kids,” she said. The fight for more tax dollars has to be waged within the context of stronger standards and rigorous accountability, she said. More money alone isn’t the answer, she said.

Read more in the Tacoma News Tribune

By Steve Mullin, president of the Washington Roundtable

… With economists and other experts emphasizing the importance of these subjects, what was Olympia’s response? The decision was to delay the state math graduation requirement for five more years and the science requirement for three years while increasing spending on K-12 education by $1.8 billion. The policymakers in Olympia argued that the standards needed to be delayed so long because “the system failed the kids,” then appropriated lots more money without making any fundamental changes to that system.

Assuming the state actually follows through with implementation of the math and science graduation requirements in 2013, it will have taken two decades to implement a requirement that high-school graduates demonstrate math skills routinely performed by eighth-graders in other parts of the world. The challenge is not just from other countries. Other tech-oriented states like Massachusetts and California have moved considerably faster than Washington on math. …

Read more in The Seattle Times