Hello & welcome!

I share your frustration. My school district (very large, very
urban) makes district-wide curriculum decisions without any formal
parent or community input. I was shocked to find this out, but it
appears to be the way it works. I'm not how much the school board
even gets involved.

Curriculum seems to be the last thing schools and school districts
want to talk aobut these days. If I look at the websites of my
district, or the schools it contains, I see everything from calendars
to after school activities to media centers to sports to special
ed...and usually nothing about what is being actually taught!

Recently my district re-upped Everyday Math (2007) which means at
least another 3-5 years of EM--this without any public comment or
even board action, to my knowledge. The jr & sr high curriculum was
replaced this year (with what looks like fuzzy math, too) with a
simple "report" to the board after a committee of district personnel
and site-based math teachers made the selection...with no formal
community notice or input.

What to do? I don't know!

However, sometimes there is a federal grant (usually National Science
Foundation) involved, and the money comes from that. The feds fund
only fuzzy math programs like EM, from what I understand, so that
could explain it.

Sorry to hear you've got to wrestle with EM now! Welcome to the
world of after-schooling...


--- In beyondterc@yahoogroups.com, "Bill Cochran" <wcochran2002@...>
wrote:
>
> Greetings to everyone in the group and Happy New Year(almost). This
> is my first posting to the group and I hope someone can relate to
my
> question. My wife is teaching Everyday Math (fifth grade) for the
> first time this year. The new superintendent implemented this new
> program this summer without the approval of the school board or any
> input from the cirriculum committee. This is after the math program
> in place was starting to show positive test scores. I am a real
> estate appraiser and work with numbers and calculations all day and
I
> have never seen anything this ridiculous. There is a lot of secrecy
> about the acquisition of this new program on behalf of the
> superintendent. THe superintendent was just hired this year and she
> claims she implemented Everyday Math in her previous district prior
> to taking this new job. I have looked their scores up and they have
> fallen since they started to use Everyday Math. Just this last week
> one of the board members who is on the cirriculum committee
attended
> a meeting with the math teachers and the superintendent. This board
> member was told that this was a private meeting and she would have
to
> leave. This was a very uncomfortable position for the teachers and
> the board member. It became so weird, that the superintendent moved
> the meeting to another building and had the principles escort her
in.
> Here is the finale, the superintendent locked the math teachers in
a
> room with her so they could have their Everyday Math meeting.
>
> So here is my question and if anyone in the group doesn't feel
> comfortable answering it, that is fine too. Has anyone felt that
> Everyday Math has been forced upon their respected districts
without
> any prior information or discussions about this math program and do
> they feel there is something questionable about districts
purchasing
> this program. Our district has paid over $100,000 for Everyday Math
> and the budget for 2008 will have to cover $25 for every student in
> the schools that use Everyday Math. Our district is very poor and
> this is going to be a hardship financially for us.
>