Email: bellevue@wheresthemath.com
Category: Bellevue SD

Bellevue school district adopts Math Expressions

On March 18, the school board voted to adopt Math Expressions for elementary schools in the district. The adoption will cost approximately a half million dollars. We encourage parents and community members to review the district’s adopted materials (available online and in the district office) and support the adoption of Math Expressions. Removing TERC Investigations from our elementary classrooms is an excellent first step in helping our students master rigorous math content

  • Bellevue WTM is delighted that the Bellevue School District has decided to replace the TERC Investigations math curriculum for elementary students. TERC has been a source of considerable dissatisfaction and concern among Bellevue parents over the last decade. 
  • We are also pleased that the district has not adopted Everyday Math, because several states, including Texas and California, have evaluated Everyday Math and found it lacking.
  • Because Math Expressions is relatively new, no substantive data from other districts is available.  However, we agree that it seems superior to both TERC Investigations and Everyday Math.

The Bellevue School District had recently completed its evaluation of the elementary school math pilot that was conducted in Fall 2007.  The district compared Everyday Math and Math Expressions to the current TERC Investigations curriculum.  Math Curriculum Director Eric McDowell had recommended adoption of Math Expressions after finding that Math Expressions was more highly rated by teachers.

Additional steps we are recommending to the School Board at its adoption meeting:

  • Prohibit K-5 calculators. We strongly urge that the district enact a policy prohibiting calculator use in grades K-5.  Bellevue WTM surveys and petitions represent nearly 1000 Bellevue parents who support the right of our students to become computationally fluent in mathematics.
  • Implementation.Create implementation materials to help teachers focus their teaching efforts on meeting the new math standards, which by legislation passed on March 11 will be leading, internationally-competitive standards.  The new WA State math standards will be available sometime between July 31 and September 25, 2008.  Ensuring that students achieve the expectations at each grade level is crucial because future state assessments (WASL replacements) will be constructed from these new standards.
  • Textbooks. Since Math Expressions does not have a student textbook, we ask the district to provide parents with textbook-like materials, including examples and definitions, so that they can help their children at home.
  • Middle & High School. To continue the math improvement now underway, we ask the district to review current middle and high school math curricula and their alignment to the new standards.  We further ask the district to begin a pilot of more rigorous example-based curricula as soon as possible, hopefully within the next year.
  • Parent input.We request more transparency and continued opportunities for parent input throughout the process of future curriculum adoptions.

Where’s The Math is making a difference!

Thanks to your help, WTM has been making a difference in the Bellevue School District.  Since its advocacy began at the state and local level two years ago, the district has changed its position on many topics.  As recently as a year ago, the district was publicly committed to the continued use and promotion of TERC.  Not only has the district added lessons on math algorithms to the Curriculum Web, but they have recently responded to requests for more public information concerning the math pilot:

See Also:

Bellevue Model District

In short, Bellevue’s success is a myth based on the fact that they have a higher level of student to begin with. Bellevue’s kids haven’t succeeded in math because of Core Plus IM…they have succeeded despite Core Plus IM with a lot of outside help (tutoring, Kumon, parents, etc….).