The greatest gift God gives us is love. He gives us His love, and He gives us each other to love. Most miraculously, as parents He gives us children to love and to love us.
Throughout much of their lives, we have the opportunity to watch our children grow and become mature adults. As parents, we quickly begin to understand and know we are very much responsible for the adults our children become. Our children model us. From us our children acquire their values and beliefs. From us they expect the best example we have to give. As parents, each of us soon learns and knows it is our God-given duty to do whatever we can to help our children become the best they can be. No one else will care as much. No one else will love our children so much as we.
What we have below is an email I received from a concerned parent opposed to Prince William County School’s (PWCS) Math Investigations Program. I want you to listen to this parent’s frustration. Why? The reason is that you and I have created a big problem for a lot of parents. How? We have not given them any choice in how they educate their children.
On Wednesday March 4th, the Prince William County school board will finally vote to do something about mathematics education.
Investigations in Numbers Data and Space aka Math Investigations or MI, was implemented through a highly dubious adoption process where state and county rules were ignored to achieve the result the math department wanted. (Author’s note: This claim has been directly denied by members of the School Board. I do not have a position one way or the other. What is odd, however, is that PWCS adopted this text series against the apparent recommendation of the Virginia Department of Education (see here))
Parents were not initially concerned assuming that the math department knew what it was doing.
Then the cracks started to appear; the children were bored due to a lack of challenge.
When this was brought to the attention of the math department first they said the parents didn’t understand the “new math”. Then we were told that the kids were gaining a deeper conceptual understanding.
We were told that MI was research proven. Well the research they were citing was a document called “Investigations in Number Data and Space: Evidence for Success”. A very diligent parent called every school district in that marketing brochure and most have dropped or are dropping MI. The rest are either heavily funded with large numbers of title 1 schools or very small school districts.
The math department recently answered questions from the school board as to whether an opt-in to traditional math would be feasible and their answers were very evasive.
I do not understand why they are so attached to Math Investigations and why they are so hostile to the parents who want more challenging math.
We need the board to vote to support an opt-in to traditional math so that we can start to move away from this remedial, damaging program. We know a huge number of parents and teachers feel the same way. It is time for the school board to act.
Parents need to let the school board know how they feel.
http://www.pwcs.edu/admin/schboard/
Parents are also encouraged to sign the petition at http://pwcteachmathright.com
The fact that we get the government we vote for is both the genius and the bane of the American system of government. Because the people who lead us have to get more votes than anyone else, they are answerable to us. Unfortunately, every solution has a downside. Because government is a monopoly, government by the People depends directly upon the expertise of the People. Because human beings like having a monopoly, government bureaucrats do like giving us choices. So when we the People do not know what we are doing, it is difficult to tell whether or not we are doing a bad job. We have no easy basis for comparison.
Fortunately, in spite of the fact public education is available to everyone for “free,” substantial numbers of parents still homeschool or send their children private schools. What is amazing is that even education received by homeschoolers compares favorably with that receive by those children who attend the public school system. That suggests two things:
- An educational system that wholly excludes choice is probably not a good idea. Given how contentious the issue of Math Investigations has become, the Prince William County School Board should allow parents an Opt In Option for Traditional Math.
- We the People should consider the possibility we do not have the expertise to properly manage an educational system. In the same way we use private industry to acquire everything from automobiles to medical services, we should allow parents to hire the experts of their choice help them educate their children.
Thanks for addressing this important issue.
You are correct that the frustration level is very high.
The suggestions of rule breach are based on the following items obtained by FOIA request:
5th grade MI is not on the state approved text list so school board should have been asked to approve the adoption process.
The process is required to be free from bias so Ruth Parker, an MI advocate should not have been telling them what to look for in a text; she kicked off the test review.
SOL correlation must be considered; they were told to ignore it as “the state had already reviewed all the texts”.
While the school system and school board have publicly asserted that the process by which Investigations was adopted followed appropriate state statutes, that assertion seems to have dubious basis in fact.
The VA Dept. Of Education establishes the standards of learning that VA public school students are expected to master for each given grade level and topic. To help local school districts select appropriate materials for their students, the DOE reviews textbooks and instructional materials for content match with the VA SOLs and maintains two lists of materials – the state adopted and non-state adopted lists. As you’d expect, those matierials on the state adopted list have met the state minimum requirement for SOL content match while those on the non-state adopted list have not.
Section 22.1-238 of the Code of VA provides local school districts with the authority to select instructional materials from either the state adopted or non-state adopted lists, provided they follow the procedures promulgated by the State Board of Education for each. Those procedures are promulgated in Title 8, Agency 20, Chapter 230, Sections 20 and 30 of the Virginia Administrative Code. Section 20 provides the procedure for local adoptions of state adopted material while Section 30 provides the procedure for local adoptions of non-state adopted material.
Investigations has not been adopted by the state for use as a K – 5 series. It was adopted as a K – 3 series and for Grade 4, but failed to meet sufficient standards as a stand alone text in Grade 5 or as a K-5 series. That means that in order to be in compliance with state statutes regarding textbook selection, PWC needed to follow the procedure set forth in 8-20-230-30 of the VAC.
That procedure, in point #5, requires that the criteria the textbook review committee use to assess textbooks must be officially approved by the local school board. This requirement makes sense when you consider that obtaining official approval of the evaluation criteria would require that school system officials disclose to the public that they are considering a non-state adopted textbook for use in local elementary schools AND that they disclose the reasons why they are considering a non-state adopted textbook.
This step never happened. There was no public disclosure, no discussion, and no debate, and no official approval of the criteria the school system felt made selecting a non-state adopted textbook a necessity.
Below is the response I received from a PWC school official when I asked, under FOIA, for evidence of school board’s official approval of the evaluation criteria: “You requested: A copy of the school board’s official approval of the textbook evaluation criteria and the officially approved criteria on file in the school board offices as per point # 5 in 8 VAC20-230-30.
Pursuant to School Board Regulation 653-2 II D, it is the Supervisor’s responsibility to develop evaluative criteria and the responsibility of the Associated Superintendent for Learning and Accountability to present such criteria to the School Board. The School Board does not approve evaluation criteria. Therefore there is no record of such approval.”
Clearly, the school board did not approve the textbook evaluation criteria.
Maybe, just possibly, the school system wasn’t aware that the school board needed to officially approve the textbooks evaluations criteria. It was, after all, the first time the the county would be mandating one textbook series in all county schools and the first time the county was considering a non-state adopted text.
Except that the state requires that the school district submit it’s selection of textbooks to the appropriate state representative on a specific form. Adoptions of state adopted materials are submitted on one form and adoptions of non-state adopted materials are submitted on another, more detailed, form. School system officials completed the appropriate form for Investigations in Grades K – 4 and the appropriate form for Grade 5 and certified on both forms that they complied with the procedures promulgated by the State Board of Educations in selecting the textbooks.
This implies that county officials were aware that there were two different procedures they needed to follow.
School board members and school officials are aware of this issue, as are various representatives at the VA DOE and in the state legislature. Thus far it appears that our elected representatives have chosen to ignore it.
Links:
Section of the VAC that proscribes the procedures for local adoptions of non-state adopted texts:
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+reg+8VAC20-230-30
Minutes of the State Board of Education meeting accepting list of state and non-state adopted textbooks:
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/VA_Board/Meetings/2005/ItemO-jan.pdf
I currently work as a math coach in Rhode Island and I disagree that Investigations provides a remedial program. I have found that in order to teach Investigations correctly it requires a much stronger understanding of mathematics on the teachers part and provides the students with a much more difficult curriculum. Students now have to think and explain what they are doing, not just plug numbers into a formula or follow the steps of an algorithm to excel in math class.
@ Deb: I don’t think this is the main part of the problem–the primary issue here is that there is a controversial curriculum being forced upon students with no other choice given to parents. Parents have the ultimate responsibility for their children’s education. If they think this program is not being implemented effectively, then they should have the choice to opt in to a less controversial curriculum. And, by the way, I use the word “implemented” on purpose. It may very well be the case that there’s more of a problem with how it’s being implemented than with the curriculum itself. Nonetheless, the results are the same: the children are not learning math at a reasonably-expected rate (based on state test scores). Regardless the cause, parents should be afforded the opportunity to implement a solution.
I agree with you Dale, that parents deserve a choice in how their children are educated. However, my concern isn’t with the manner in which Investigations is being implemented. PWC is doing exactly what TERC recommends with regards to implementing Investigations.No, my problem is with the curriculum.
I think Investigations is a remedial, substandard program. I believe that children who study under the program will be significantly behind their peers. I’d even go so far as to say the the program is dangerous. I’m not alone in that belief.
Per Dr Stephen Wilson, PhD Mathematics JHU:
“I am not really here today to talk to the Board, but to the parents. If your child goes to a school that uses TERC Investigations, you should understand that it means your child’s school has abdicated its responsibility to teach your child mathematics. By doing so, the responsibility now rests with the parents. Good luck.”
To me, if a college professor says something this pointed about the math program your kids are being forced to study, you gotta wonder what the heck the schools are doing. His concern by the way, isn’t with implementation but rather with the curriculum.
Link where you can find Dr Wilson’s full testimony, and other research indicating that Investigations, when implemented as proscribed, is a substandard. remedial program.
http://pwceducationreform.wordpress.com/pwcs-math/the-evidence-against-terc-investigations/