After a pilot this fall, Bellevue is planning to drop the vacuous TERC Investigations curriculum. The TERC Investigation curriculum has drawn many complaints from parents. The report on the pilot in Bellevue can be found here: Elementary Mathematics Pilot Final Report. The report finds the Everyday Math curriculum less effective than Math Expressions and fewer teachers preferred it.
The Bellevue Reporter reports:
Based on data from the studies that were done last fall on two K-5 math programs – Everyday Math and Math Expressions – officials are recommending that the board adopt the latter during its March 18 meeting.
“It is so good, that going back to (Investigations) at this point in the year makes me sick to my stomach,” one teacher said of Math Expressions in an anonymous teacher survey. “Prior to this, I actually thought Investigations was alright. Now I look at it and can’t believe how awful it is in comparison to Math Expressions.”
Another teacher said they have taught several curriculums and Math Expressions is the best the teacher has ever seen.
Many parents at the meeting shared the same enthusiasm.
Susan Pomeroy’s son, a 2nd grader at Cherry Crest Elementary, was one of the students in the Math Expressions pilot. Pomeroy is part of the “Where’s the Math” group that advocates a more traditional math curriculum, or “computational” math.
“I was thrilled that he actually had a book that he brought home, so we were very pleased,” she said after the meeting. She also liked that her son’s homework assignments were mapped to whatever he had learned in school so she could see.
