--- In beyondterc@yahoogroups.com, Bill Cochran <wcochran2002@...>
wrote:
>I really want to know what the big secret is about EM? . . . Is
there "payola" going on between the publishers of EM
> and administrators and possibly school boards? I wonder if anyone
has ever really looked into this and how can we stop this from
happening?

Bill, I can't tell you how many times I've wondered about this
myself. In my neck of the woods (Twin Cities) you almost cannot get
away from EM in the city and suburban school districts. Everywhere
you turn, it's there. So much for "school choice"! For example,
there is a gifted program in one of the suburbs that utilizes special
gifted curricula in everything...except math. They too are mandated
to use Everyday Math. I always thought it smelled something of a
conspiracy, and I was convinced it must be about money. With lots of
sniffing around I did find evidence of a big NSF grant that went
through the Univ of Minnesota to fund "school change" and required
substantially all of the metro districts to adopt reform math, but
that was a while ago. Once this stuff gets into a district it's hard
to eradicate b/c it's so different, you'd lose your entire investment
in teacher training if you went "back"...

Vicky