Washblog || Seattle Selecting New Math Books

Seattle Selecting New Math Books

By ktkeller
Mon May 04, 2009 at 06:45:13 PM PST
Section: Diary Topic: General news/info

(tip of the hat to rmdseabos, DWE and others concerned about education)

I was looking at Cliff Mass's website for storm info, and came across this article:

Many of you know that I feel strongly about math education and work closely with a group called wheresthemath.com. As a UW professor I have seen declined math abilities of incoming students, and some students can't follow their dreams of a meteorological career because of poor high school math backgrounds. And my own children have suffered from poor textbooks and math curricula.
The Seattle School District will be making a landmark decision on Wednesday for the selection of high school math texts. Their review panel (which didn't have a single mathematician or technical professional from the community) is favoring a terrible textbook series (Discovering Algebra and Geometry), which fosters the same "discovery" or "reform" approach that has done so much damage during the past several years. Their second choice (Prentice Hall Algebra and Geometry) is quite good. The Seattle School Board should reject the Discovering Math series if it is to insure Seattle students will get a decent math education. The School Board was split in the last meeting, and they need to hear from concerned citizens before the Wednesday gathering.
I have prepared a youtube video on the subject ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n340ROI8uYc&feature=channel_page) and more information is available at www.wheresthemath.com. Please let them know how you feel (emails of school board members below). And those of you outside of Seattle will also be affected if the largest school district in the state goes the wrong way. Thanks for listening...cliff
School Board Directors:
Michael DeBell - michael.debell@seattleschools.org
Sherry Carr - sherry.carr@seattleschools.org
Harium Martin-Morris - harium.martin-morris@seattleschools.org
Peter Maier - peter.maier@seattleschools.org
Cheryl Chow - cheryl.chow@seattleschools.org
Steve Sundquist - steve.sundquist@seattleschools.org
Mary Bass - mary.bass@seattleschools.org

http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2009/05/seattles-big-math-decision.html

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Seattle Selecting New Math Books | 4 comments (4 topical)

rmdSeaBos:

this is your cue.

by DWE on Tue May 05, 2009 at 04:25:35 PM PST

* 1 none 0 *

I completely missed this diary! by rmdSeaBos, 05/14/2009 04:58:28 PM PST (none / 0)

If you read the comments

on Mass's blog article, the opponents of his position castigate his group for being biased, cherry picking, etc., etc., without offering any facts. Some of the comments are just laughably incoherent.

I know I agree with the Futurologists when they said that in the future we need to learn how to learn, that the answers won't be in the back of the book. I think that means learn how to do research and take in information. A lot of the perspective belongs in the realm of social sciences and breaking down history. Grounding in math is a precondition to logic and being able to see though the wool being pulled over our eyes.

We sure have a lot of people who believe that learning involves falling prey to conclusions and opinions stated as facts either because they missed out on the research and learning to learn part or now because they miss out on the basics of reading and math.

Not teaching math strikes me aa a plot to keep an uneducated underclass.

by ktkeller on Tue May 05, 2009 at 11:34:44 PM PST

* 2 none 0 *

So the Board made its decision. I recommend:

this post (and comments) on the Seattle Public Schools community blog. Fifty-five comments so far.

And even better is Cliff Mass' post here.

by DWE on Thu May 07, 2009 at 08:07:45 PM PST

* 3 none 0 *

Seattle Selecting New Math Books | 4 comments (4 topical)

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