Happy New Year

Like so many of you...I am just getting back in the swing of things after a crazy Christmas break. I must say that there is something nice about a routine. Please KNOW that I have not forgotten about our little issue here called "math". I have simply taken a little step back over our break so my husband and children could have their "commander and chief" overseeing the holiday festivities with a whole heart while I had them all to myself. As a very good friend who has fought this battle much, much longer than I have reminds me often.."balance in all areas is a must". Thank you "L" you are so very right. The injustice of this issue can overtake you and consume you at times if you are not careful. So, I have taken my friend's advice and taken a little break. But, I am rested. I have clarity of thought. And I am ready to continue to make our voices heard on behalf of our children.

There is so much to share that I have learned over break. There have been several of us researching our MAP scores at DESE and learning so much about what is going on in our school district based on the scores that are available for public consumption. I have learned SO MUCH, and of course as a result of what I have learned I have EVEN MORE QUESTIONS!!!! Imagine that! I am still processing all of the information that I have learned. I will share soon.

I had the privilege of getting to speak to the incredibly knowledgable Elizabeth Carson from the NYC Hold for quite some time. I have learned so much from her and the years of research and work that she has spent fighting this issue all over our nation. She is an invaluable resource, and an amazing woman. If any of you have seen her work at the NYC Hold...you know that we owe her such a debt of gratitude for her endless hours of devotion to fighting this the good fight for our children. Thank you Elizabeth for educating me and the priceless insights that you shared.

I also had the opportunity to speak with a woman I admire so very much. I met her through this site, and I am so grateful for her careful wisdom and precious insights to what we are experiencing. She is a high school math teacher from up north. She, too, has been a part of this fight much longer than I. She has been on the front lines for many years and as a high school math teacher who is passionate about her "calling" she fights this the good fight because she has seen firsthand what this way of teaching does to our children. Her heart breaks for the children who are the byproduct of this "experimental" kind of teaching. I have learned so much from her, and am ever so grateful for her profound guidance and insight. She continues to point me in the right directions and imparts so much knowledge my way that I would not have ever known about without her. Thank you "L". Out of something so ridiculously trying at times you are a true bright spot for me. Thank you for being my teacher.

We will be holding another very informal forum soon to retrieve all of those signatures that you all collected over Christmas break. Just hold on to those for now. We will come together again soon. I will keep you posted on that, too. We will have more petitions to pass out and an opportunity to meet a couple of the school board candidates at that time.

NOW...FOR A MATH UPDATE. ON MONDAY THE FIRST NIGHT BACK FROM BREAK I GOT A CALL FROM SOMEONE I AM VERY CLOSE TO. SHE WAS HAVING A TOTAL AND COMPLETE FREAK OUT BECAUSE ON MONDAY NIGHT HER THIRD GRADE SON BROUGHT HOME 7 DIVISION PROBLEMS. THE PROBLEM IS YOU SEE.....OUR THIRD GRADERS HAVE NOT EVEN BEEN INTRODUCED TO MULTIPLICATION YET. (Yes, you read it right...they don't even know how to multiply yet). HER QUESTION TO ME IN NOT VERY NICE TERMS..."HOW IN THE WORLD CAN THEY EXPECT OUR KIDS TO DO DIVISION IF THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO MULTIPLY?"
VERY GOOD POINT MY FRIEND. I COULD NOT AGREE MORE....THIS IS CRAZY! OUR POOR LITTLE CHILDREN. YOU KNOW IF IT DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE TO US, THEN HOW IN THE WORLD CAN IT MAKE SENSE TO ANY OF THEM? KEEP FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT PARENTS. KEEP A VERY WATCHFUL EYE ON WHAT YOUR KIDS ARE BRINGING HOME AND DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK LOTS AND LOTS OF VERY POINTED QUESTIONS. YOU DESERVE ANSWERS. WE MUST KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON AS WE ARE OUR CHILDRENS' BEST AND ONLY TRUE ADVOCATES!

I

Answers Needed

Camdenton Parents, please read the mission statement pulled directly from the website for Camdenton RIII Schools.

Committed to Excellence in Student Achievement

Parent and Community Involvement:
*1. Communication between the school, parents, community, and students will be ongoing
*2. Parents and community members are involved and encouraged to be a part of the school environment
*3. Our District will strive to eliminate cultural and socio-economic bias
*4. Parental support and communication is essential to high achievement and student learning
*5. Administration, teachers, and staff will listen to parents/community ideas and concerns
*6. School information will be readily accessible
*7. Parents and community will be involved in the school by volunteering and participating at all levels
*8. Our entire school community is treated with dignity and respect
*9. An open and comfortable environment is desirable for parent involvement
*10. Our District will provide opportunities for teachers and parents to collaborate about the child's progress/problems and develop strategies for improvement.

Mission statement taken from www.camdentonschools.org

We have questions that have yet to be answered by anyone at the administrative levels. Why should it be so hard to get answers to even the most basic questions? Does our mission statement not lead you to believe that our administrators and school board should communicate with us? Doesn't communicate mean an exchange of dialogue? Why should it be unreasonable to get answers to the easy questions?

Our questions:

1. Did our administration recognize that this curriculum was a very controversial issue all across our state and nation BEFORE they chose it? (i.e. Did they know about Columbia, Raymore Peculiar, the state of California banning this type of teaching and the same of the state of Texas? The harsh warnings of leading mathematicians and scientists and Nobel Laureates and Fields Medal Winners from ALL OVER THE UNITED STATES) If so, then why did we go forward in spite of these facts?

2. Did our administration know what our Department of Education warned about this type of teaching in their report called The Foundations For Success that came out in March 2008?

3. Can anyone in our administration show us 5 schools in our state where Investigations without supplementation has been a documented success for longer than 3 years. Being that this program has been around for over 20 years in the United States, surely this should not be hard...right?

4. Has anyone in our administration read the word problems that our 3rd and 4th graders are bringing home? Do any of you recognize that these questions ARE NOT written for 3rd and 4th grade readers? How do you expect our 3rd and 4th graders to READ questions that appear to be written by adults for adults? WHY HAS THIS NOT BEEN ADDRESSED?

5. Why did we choose to take our children into a reading rich math curriculum when it was abundantly clear that our children in all of our elementary schools are struggling with reading? How did you EXPECT for them to be successful with this math when they cannot read? Why were we not working on improving our reading scores?

6. What was wrong with the old, Scott Foresman, textbooks? Did you realize how completely BALANCED those were? Have you really studied those and understand what they are all about?

I know you have all heard these questions before. I know everyone is sick of these questions, but according to the mission statement shown above one would think that we should expect OPEN communication. There are a lot of questions, but not any answers. Why? These should not be hard questions. You would think that if this program has been successful enough for us to choose it, and there is a fair rebuttal to the data mentioned above, by all means why won't anyone share it with us because we WANT to know what that information says. Why won't anyone tell us what those answers are? I do appreciate the teachers who believe in this program, and I know that you can all tell us why you think it is great, but these questions need to be answered by the people who chose this math in upper administration.

This should not be as hard as it has turned out to be. We continually asked questions, but we were met with no answers. We asked for consideration and understanding that this is an urgent situation for our children, but it appeared we were met with ambivalence to our concern and a lack of acknowledgement that this is urgent for us with children in 3rd and 4th grades where they should start to really learn the "meat and potatoes of math". It is unfortunate that we feel that a petition is the only way for our voices to be heard as, to this point, we have heard nothing from those who hold the answers.

The following is also pulled directly from the Camdenton RIII website with reference to correct protocol to be followed in revising curriculum. Was the process followed as outlined?

www.camdentonschools.org

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

The district will review and revise written curriculum on a rotating basis. Curriculum guides for math, social studies, science, English, foreign language*, fine arts, health/physical education, and vocational education will be re-evaluated every four (4) years in the following manner:

► A committee of teachers representing all grade levels concerned with a particular subject area will be responsible for the review and revision. Committee members will be appointed by the superintendent or designee. One (1) member will be designated as chair for the committee.

► At the discretion of the superintendent or designee, a member of the community may also be appointed to serve on any curriculum review and revision committee.

The district is committed to a curriculum designed to meet the needs of the community and of students. The curriculum revision and review committees will base revisions on the following (in no particular order):

► Community standards.

► Teacher recommendation.

► Results of educational research.

At the conclusion of the review and revision process, the chair of the committee shall prepare a report detailing the findings made and actions taken by the committee. A copy of this report shall be presented to the superintendent and the Board of Education.

I did only pull those points that I am the most curious about. The whole document can be viewed by pulling the link up at: IF-AP - CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

1. Since the above says that curricula will be re-evaluated every four years, why have our third graders had their math changed every year for the last four years? Kindergarten= Scott Foresman. First Grade=Investigations (Decided it was not meeting GLEs and it was dropped). Second Grade=Everyday Math. Third Grade=Investigations (again). How and why has this happened? ? Where was there any continuity for them? Do you understand why we feel like our third graders have been guinea pigs? How are they supposed to thrive if there has been absolutely NO continuity offered to them?

2. Were these guidelines followed correctly in replacing our existing curriculum? Were the teachers given a voice as a part of the PLC? Was there a consensus? Was that documented? Did the Vertical Teaming Committee vote? Was there a consensus? Is that documented?

We understand that the school board cannot micromanage every single detail of a school district this size. We understand that that would nearly be impossible. We appreciate your dedication and the years of service that you have all offered to our community and our school. It is a thankless job, and we understand that you now sit in the unenviable position of trying to mediate a very difficult situation. But, now that you have had this issue brought to your attention your community needs to hear from you.

The Implementation of Supplementation!

Let's clarify a few things.

Let's talk about the supplementation issue. I know that if you have read any information on this site, there is a very strong possibility that you have seen or heard that word over and over again when it comes to that issue. It is a very important issue to understand for many reasons. I will do my best to explain.

Understand that when the teachers found out last year this is the way they would be forced to teach this year, most were devastated. My husband, who sat in on that meeting saw many of the teachers walk out in tears...not having any idea exactly why they were so upset. We now know what so many of them already knew. None-the-less, the program was chosen and the books that they were using along with all of their resource guides were taken from each classroom to ensure that they would not be used in order to keep the curriculum pure. All of those books (which were the Scott Foresman text) were sold. The teachers were told in no uncertain terms that there would be NO supplementation allowed in the 3rd and 4th grades (Hawthorn) outside of the curriculum. NONE AT ALL.

So...as so many of us parents started our year looking for the text books so we could help our kids with their math we quickly learned that there were none. So, the question became "what are they doing" as the worksheets were completely ambiguous, and in many cases when parents would try to help their children with the standard algorithms the answers were counted wrong even though the answer itself was right....it was the process that was being graded, not the answer itself. Many, many parents can attest to this.

Thus, causing many questions to arise. We soon found out that the standard algorithm is only identified as one of a multitude of procedures to solve simple addition and subtraction problems in the 3rd and 4th grade, but never taught and PRACTICED as the simplest and most efficient way to solve a problem. Multiple strategies are introduced, but none ever mastered...especially what most of us would see to be the most simple and quickest way to achieve the correct answer. There is NO mastery or PRACTICE. It became obvious that most of our children were very confused with the process and that we could not help them because the standard algorithm is not advocated by this curriculum.
The standard algorithm is not even INTRODUCED in this program until the 5th grade when it comes to division and multiplication. Check out the math handbooks that can be checked out from your teacher and confirm that fact. You will not see the standard algorithm AT ALL when it comes to simple multiplication and division problems. Thus, the outcry for supplements to introduce our children to the basic building blocks of math, with the demand for practice and mastery of the most basic of skills was made.

Any educated assumption would expect that a child must master addition before you can really teach him/her to subtract. Once those are mastered the progression to multiplication and division are reasonable. It is a progression of steps, one at a time. (Just as our National Mathematics Advisory Panel suggests: Less is more. Teach our children the most efficient, tried and true methods of problem solving. Stop confusing them by shoving a multitude of strategies in front of them and expect them to excel.) We realized quickly that our kids needed so much more than was being offered by their curriculum...but, we (the parents and the teachers) were met with opposition to this request from those who are advocates of this way of teaching.

So...in the beginning the teachers were absolutely told NOT to supplement outside of the curriculum. The teachers were told it was critical to keep the curriculum "pure".

Do you remember a recent post titled: To Supplement Or Not To Supplement. That Is Now The Question. Do you remember how I asked for all of the definitions? Remember how I wanted complete clarification? There was a reason for that. Well, a couple of weeks ago, after the parents came together at the first forum, we were told that the program WAS being supplemented. However what they failed to mention was that it was only being supplemented from within the existing program. There was some confusion as a result of the first forum and what was told to the parents. As a result the teachers were called in to a meeting and a memo was posted. To clarify, the teachers were called in to a meeting and told to ONLY supplement with inquiry based supplements...nothing else...( Which might as well be only supplementing from inside of the curriculum, because this is not what most of us would consider a more traditional approach that we are so desperately looking for. )
Therefore, even though some would tell us "yes, you can supplement" that was not a total lie..... just not the whole truth. Yes, they could supplement, but not with what the vast majority of us would consider a true supplement. This is why it has become so important to know which questions to ask and be very specific because you will hear what you want to hear, but it is crucial that you know how to ask your questions. There is a lot of what I call "double-speak" with this curriculum, and it is VERY frustrating.....not just for us, but for the teachers, too. Know how to ask your questions if you expect to get an accurate answer.

So here we are, after a school board member requested clarification as to exactly what a supplement was about a week ago...Dr. Overlander went to the teachers at Hawthorn personally and told them to supplement with anything needed to make sure the children were getting what they need. I appreciate that he himself went and made sure the teachers knew that is what he expected. And for the first time, most will tell you at that point is when they would agree they felt the liberty to truly reach beyond the current curriculum for supplements to meet their students where they were at.(Thank you Dr. Overlander) This is definitely a positive step in the right direction, but begs the answer to a few more questions as a result of such a compromise.

The first question is: Is there any uniformity in what those supplements are going to be?
The second question is: How do you plan to assist the teachers in the implementation process? Being that it is crucial that they have the tools and pointed instruction on exactly how to effectively supplement, shouldn't the administration be vested in making sure that the implementation is a success? The implementation issue is a big one. But, let us all remember that implementation does not only apply to the teachers. If the teachers are not given the adequate tools to administer these supplements effectively, then how can we reasonably expect the supplements to be a success? If not implemented by our administration successfully one must question whether or not they really want the supplements to work at all if they are not willing to oversee this endeavour.

Keep in mind...the supplements are only a quick rescue for our kids to stop the bleeding. We want this program removed as our core. We want our core to be the more basic traditional approach to math that all of the experts advocate! The supplements will only give us some assurance that our kids are learning something at school. SUPPLEMENTS SHOULD NOT JUST BE HOMEWORK TO PACIFY THE PARENTS!!!! THESE SKILLS SHOULD BE PRACTICED AND MASTERED AT SCHOOL!!

You might find it interesting...Parents, ask your child how long they are spending on math daily at school. You might be interested to know that in some classrooms in Hawthorn your kids are spending a minimum of 2 hours a day on math. Ask your kids that question. More than one parent and teacher have shared that they are allowing over an hour per day for math, and then their intervention time (45 minutes) per day is also allotted for math. So my question becomes...when is there time to work on reading? When is there time to fit all of the other subjects in every day if our main focus is just learning math? *** Remember, our math scores in
Camdenton have always been good. Our reading is another story. If we are going to dedicate so much time to one program, why is it to the subject that our kids normally have tested well in here at Camdenton? Why not focus on that subject that statistically plagues us in our elementary schools currently....reading! Ask your kids if they are also doing math during their lunch breaks.... Just ask the question, and see what your child tells you.

You might find interesting this fact that I will share with you....last week I called over 30 schools I was told to be using Investigations as their core. I truly hoped to find a couple of success stories. I truly did. I thought I probably would. However, I was stunned to find, not ONE used this curriculum without being REQUIRED to use supplements. Only 3 schools actually called it their core, but NONE used it without strong supplementation. Only a few supplemented with it, many had dropped it, and some had never even heard of it. I spoke with only curriculum directors and/or principals. I also emailed teachers to get their perspective on Investigations. As one teacher from Raytown told me ...in his words:

"We do use Investigations here in Raytown. I have found that it is really lacking in substantive “work” or practice for the kids. My personal philosophy is that students feel good about math when they are successful with it. Being successful requires enough practice to become proficient in “doing” math. Investigations is really popular with adults (who already “get it”) because it seems like such a neat way to learn math. (Games, activities, really digging in and investigating the mathematical concepts.)
However, when kids at fifth grade—pretty much grade wide—struggle with basic addition, doing complex multiplication and division is near impossible.

I know that that is a fairly negative view, but it is honest. (And,
as a comparison, and in the interest of full disclosure, I did teach with Saxon math for five years, and loved it; I saw students at every level of ability grow excited and confident in their understanding.)

Sorry, I completely forgot; we also find that there a lot of holes in trying to reconcile what Investigations focuses on and what the GLE’s require. We need to go to our old basal more often then not."

Once again, from the mouth of an expert teaching Investigations right now...he declares how crucial those supplements are for kids because they are not sure the program is meeting the GLEs. School board, please see this as the absolute necessary mandate that our administration needs to implement our supplements correctly and do that sooner than later before any more damage is done! Remember, Eldon just said the same thing about Investigations and the GLEs. Please pay attention to this fact.

On a final note: Please know that our foot soldiers are out there going door to door with their petitions. As of today we are working on 300 signatures since Friday. We have most of our signatures from our paper push, but our online petition is up and running since Sunday. Either way make your voice heard, and help us help our kids. Thank you to all who believe in this ..."OUR CAUSE" for our kids! United we stand.

Don't Take My Word For It.....

This comic from www.weaponsofmathdestruction is funny, but it really isn't. It is the TRUTH! Do your own research and see what happens to kids who learn the kind of math our school is teaching. It is not fair. It is dumbing down our children. This should not be happening. If you don't want for this to be your child in a few years, do your own research!!! Be your child's best advocate and KNOW what is going on.

When you try to explain to people how far fetched this new
math is people tend to look at you with a confused look and don't think they are hearing you right when you try to explain:

1. When you work a standard addition/subtraction problem with a standard algorithm working the problem vertically and from right to left...even though you get the right answer your child gets the problem counted wrong because the process is more important than if the answer is right. YOU ARE GRADED ON THE PROCESS... NOT THE ANSWER!

2. A standard algorithm such as this is not even introduced until the 5th grade:
348 is not introduced until 5th grade.
+ 296
(no carrying or borrowing allowed with this curriculum)

3. Our third graders will not memorize their multiplication tables in school the way you and I know them. This curriculum does not believe in "rote memorization" as they call it...because (and I quote) "our children have a very important tool these days called the calculator".

4. Our first graders are using calculators to do their math in school!!!

5. Our children have no textbooks to bring home. This is why the Math Nights are so important. The reason for this is that we have NO RESOURCES to understand what in the world our kids are doing, unless someone teaches us how to teach our 3rd and 4th graders their math. Understanding what I said above about...even if the answer is right..if it is not solved with some crazy process, the answer is counted wrong.

The first time someone tried to explain it to me I did not believe them. I thought they were cuuurrrraaaaaazy. Then I started doing my own research...thus, the reason for this site. The first night I tried to explain to my husband what was going on he said that I had misunderstood. Thus, the reason for this site. The first times I tried to tell my sisters/girlfriends they looked at me all dazed and confused, and then told me that I was crazy with a laugh. Thus, the reason for this site. Unless you actually see it for yourself and all of the research about it, it seems too ridiculous to be true. OH BUT IT IS TRUE. AND IT IS SCARY! EVEN IF YOUR CHILDREN ARE "GETTING IT" YOU NEED TO REALIZE WHAT OUR UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS AND MATHEMATICIANS ARE SAYING ABOUT THIS KIND OF MATH:

In a Missourian article entitled "Math Professors Seek Change in State's K-12 Math Curriculum", college professors are quoted expressing their concerns with the state's math standards and the curriculum. Below is a quote from Missouri University math professor Adam Helfer:

"One of the most painful things for me as a math
professor at Mizzou is to work with students who have native ability in math but are not going to be able to capitalize on it because their K-12 preparation is inadequate. There is just nothing that can be done at the college level to make up for this -- it's far too late."

Another MU math professor, Alex Koldobsky, is also quoted in the article:

"I have been teaching Calculus I for the last few years and I clearly see the deterioration of computational and algebraic skills of incoming freshmen. Instead of working on the concepts of calculus, the majority of the students have to think for a long time about every elementary arithmetic and algebraic step, which at this point have to be automatic for them."

A few more powerful quotes:

“[There has been] a dramatic drop in content knowledge that we have been seeing in students coming to the universities in recent years. … A large part of the blame rests with [reform math programs].”
Testimony to United States Congress
James Milgram
Professor of Mathematics
Stanford University

“What you will not find is an ‘A’ student in college math who went through any school using only these reform math programs … without some sort of intervention. The reason I can say this with such confidence is that there is too much content missing from these programs, content that is essential for college level mathematics.”
W. Stephen Wilson
Professor of Mathematics
Johns Hopkins University

“At the elementary level, I advise against ‘Everyday Mathematics’.

At the middle school level, I advise against ‘Connected Mathematics,’ known as CMP.
Students who follow these programs, unless they have outside tutoring, will not be prepared for high school mathematics. In my experience with districts afflicted with these programs, affluent parents have sent their children to private schools or hired tutors, while the less privileged, even if they ‘succeeded’ in these programs, were forever cut off from any further progress in mathematics or scientific professional education. Once finished with ‘CMP,’ remediation becomes impossibly difficult except by private tutoring.”
Ralph A. Raimi
Professor of Mathematics
University of Rochester

“Everyday Mathematics requires massive fixes at the most basic level. The program does not teach the standard procedures at all for subtraction and division, and offers a hopelessly confusing potpourri of methods for all the four elementary operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). The program has pedagogical features (notably, rapidly jumping around over different topics without staying focused long enough for pupils to achieve mastery) that appear to make it all but unworkable as intended.”
David Klein
Professor of Mathematics
California State University, Northridge

I must say that every time someone writes or says to me...well I think you are judging this program too quickly, we have only had it for a couple of months, I am compelled to respond as I did the other day:

Anonymous said...
I spoke with a friend whose daughter is friends with the asst. principal at Derby Ridge in Columbia. My friend called that asst. principal and SHE said that Columbia has not gotten rid of Investigations and that they hold traditional math sessions in the mornings before school for those children, and parents for that matter, who need and/or want it. You may want to double-check some of your facts. One more thought...the reality is this: NO matter what math program any district uses, there will be students who struggle and there will be students who do not memorize their facts. I don't think that it's fair for all of you to judge it so soon. It's been at Hawthorn for 4 months. DESE even states that you have to give a program at least 3 years and when you get all these parents (and teachers) in an "uproar," that is only going to hinder the potential of the program. In my mind, you're "jumping the gun," and it's only going to hurt the kids in the long run. Whether you like the program or not, you need to give it time and support it. We've all heard of "self-fulfilling prophecies," right? Stacy, please post this and show both sides....

My response...

Stacy said...
With reference to the Columbia School District...Columbia decided to get rid of this curriculum AFTER their school year had already started. The Columbia Tribune reports the following:

District decides to go back to traditional math

Wednesday, September 24, 2008 10:39 p.m. CDTBY Stephanie Call COLUMBIA

— As early as next fall, students in Columbia's elementary classrooms will learn math with a traditional approach. After years of debate and discussion about the district's math curriculum, the "investigations" program won't be considered the district's everyday math program anymore.

As I understand it all schools K-8 will go to a traditional route by the beginning of the school year next year. This year they are working on undoing some of the damage done by bridging the gap from Investigations to Traditional and next year start the Traditional approach.

With reference to giving it a try...the problem is that I do know my facts very, very well. I have spent hundreds of hours on research and spoken with people from all over the nation and our state with reference to this subject of our new math. I am not judging it because it is new. If we wait around to see what happens it will be too late to help our now third graders.

I choose to let the experience of a multitude of schools that have gone before us be my guide. I choose to heed the warnings of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel appointed by the Department of Education. I choose to listen when hundreds of our country's leading mathematicians and Nobel Laureates condemn this way of teaching. I pay attention when 50 of the leading mathematicians in our state protest over this way of educating our youth. I know my facts. I am deeply concerned when our model school Raymore Peculiar says that they dropped Investigations in all of their elementary schools because the junior high school teachers felt that the students were coming in "grossly unprepared" according to one of the principals there.

This is not a whim for me, so when you ask me to check my facts...I must ask you to do the same when you tell me that I am not being fair in not wanting to give it a try. If you knew your facts there is absolutely no way that you would ever want this for your child knowingly. (Assuming that you have a now elementary school child) At least I would hope not. I am my child's only advocate and I want more for them than the failures that have followed this program across our great nation. So should you. When this program fails, and it will if we keep it, it will not be my fault. It will only be history repeating itself.

Do you know the definition of insanity? It is simply put: Doing the same thing over and over again with the expectation of different results. This type of math has been around for well over 20 years and there is not one qualified study on record with our Department of Education to show that it works...after 20 years. So why not stop this insanity and stop trying to reinvent the wheel. Our kids deserve better.

THIS IS NOT A MATTER OF HOW WELL YOUR CHILD IS DOING...THIS IS A MATTER OF HOW WELL THEY ARE BEING PREPARED FOR REAL LIFE AND/OR THEIR COLLEGE YEARS. LOOK AT THE FACTS. RESEARCH FOR YOURSELF, AND REALIZE THAT OUR KIDS NEED US TO USE OUR VOICES ON THEIR BEHALF. LOOK FOR OUR PETITION ONLINE IN THE NEXT DAY OR SO, AND LET'S MAKE OUR VOICES HEARD! TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE, WE CANNOT GET THESE YEARS BACK!

Define Balance

In an article done by the The Lake Sun Leader today at www.lakesunleader.com , Dr. Overlander was quoted as looking for balance...just like us. However, our question is how does he plan to make sure there is the balance we are looking for as parents? We are looking for supplements from outside of the curriculum as a quick rescue for our kids . We want that done now. However, when anyone asks teachers, or even board members asked the administrators the other night exactly what supplements we would be using no one could decisively answer that question. What EXACTLY are our supplements? I am sorry, but supplements within the program from everything we have been told about those "supplements" are not what we are talking about. That is just more of the same kind of teaching and that will not satisfy us. Our children need so much more. According to so many teachers, and administrators who use Investigations from all over our state, Investigations requires much more than it alone can offer. According to almost every single person I have talked to (and I have done my homework and talked to many) "It has way too many gaps."

Why is it so hard to answer that question, and make sure all of the teachers are on the same page of understanding as all of the parents? At this point that is not happening. That is why we are all so frustrated. Supplements need to be what the Eldon School District did....bring something additional in from outside of the program because they believe as so many of us do...this program is not capable of teaching our kids their GLEs (grade level expectations). The article below illustrates why so many of us are so frustrated. I know Dr. Overlander is trying to ease our concerns by ordering us a supplement handbook from the curriculum, but that is not going to make any of us feel any better about what our kids are learning.

We are looking for a rich balance of the basic skills being taught such things as simple multiplication tables and standard algorithms such as this:

398

+562

______

...worked in a vertical fashion and carrying the numbers, working RIGHT TO LEFT. This is not what is being taught to our children.

For those of you who are looking for clarification on what in the world is going on and why we are so upset...yes, you read the above right. Here are some facts about Investigations:

(By the way...TERC and Investigations are the same thing)

FEW FACTS ABOUT INVESTIGATIONS MATH:

1) TERC removes teaching the times tables to children.
2) No valid math study has ever been performed showing the effectiveness of Investigations Math.
3) California and Michigan implemented programs identical to TERC and forced enrollment in college freshmen remedial math classes more than doubled over just a few years.
4) "Children tend not to learn what they are not taught." Dr. Ralph Raimi (wrote article comparing TERC to Singapore Math) TERC doesn't teach, it lets children do “discovery learning.”
5) Hundreds of university leading math professors and Nobel Laureates condemn Investigations Math.
6) TERC recommends a text for teachers called "Beyond Arithmetic". In this book it says traditional elementary math must be discarded because:
Was "developed to meet the needs of the 19th century." BA, Page 2

Requires that students "memorize many facts, procedures, definitions, and formulas." BA, Page 2 (and how is this bad?)

"Focuses on learning a particular set of procedures for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers, fractions, and decimals." BA, Page 2 (and how is this bad?)

Results in "overpracticed students." BA, Page 3 (is there such a thing?)

Ignores the fact that "today's students have an important tool available to them: the calculator." BA, Page 77 (this is why they do not believe in memorizing the multiplication tables.)

Let me reiterate... the above is taken directly from an Investigations teachers guide in explaining why math the way we know it should not be taught any longer.


By Deanna Wheeler
Lake Sun Leader
Tue Dec 09, 2008, 10:00 PM CST

www.lakesunleader.com
Excerpts taken from the Lake Sun's article today:

Balance is just the word Superintendent Maurice Overlander used as well. Two changes have been enacted since the November special board meeting that examined the growing controversy. The first was that the district purchased numerous supplemental handbooks for students. Parents are being encouraged to use them as well.

The guides give examples on how to work through problems.Overlander said he hopes the move will be the first large step to ease parents’ concerns when attempting to help their child with nightly homework.

Overlander described the guides as the piece that was missing when the new Investigations program was implemented.

So many of you have asked for an example of how the new math is different from the old. Here is a look at what the kids would have brought home last year in the third grade.

Notice that there is that balance we are asking for. There is both word problems with the teaching of the basic skills. This is the same book that Eldon just purchased to offer their children the Balance that we so desperately desire. It has BOTH the investigations and the basic skills that build our childrens foundation of knowledge. Why did we get rid of these?

Below is what that same third grade homework looks like today. However, know this...that if these questions are answered with a simple standard algorithm they are counted WRONG. That is not allowed by the curriculum. And realize this...there are NO textbooks....so when your child brings home his/her homework at night this is what you see.

And now realize that they cannot use the standard algorithm(as I illlustrated above in 398 +562) to solve these problems. They are solved by drawing pictures...estimating...working everything left to right in a horizontal fashion. And there is no practice at school of any basic skills. They may send some home to us at night to make us feel better, but is there really "practice" at school? When I said that my third grader brought ONE problem home the other night for his practice, I was not kidding. It was ONE word problem that was a simple 2 digit addition problem. That is what we are seeing for our children when they bring their work home from school, thus the reason for the questions: Yes, they are getting As and Bs, but what are they really learning? That is the question.

We are NOT saying that there is no place for this way of teaching...we know that because of our MAP Tests we have to expose our children to it, but this should never be our core. This should ONLY be a supplement. That is all we are asking for.

Prayer List

Our dear friend Kim Spangler was rushed to the hospital yesterday and placed in ICU. Please keep her in your constant prayers. I don't know many of the details, but I do know that she needs our prayers. There are many things more important in life than this silly math, and when one of our own faces trials such a Kim, we must be reminded of the most important things in life. Remember her today in your thoughts and prayers.

Big Disappointment

I am sad to report we will be starting our petition drive on Thursday. After attending the school board meeting tonight I am reporting that we are stuck with Investigations for our children without any supplements outside of the program as we would expect them whether we like it or not. Despite all of the mountains of research offered...

* The National Advisory Panel's Report in 2008.....
* The fact that Columbia dropped Investigations after years of falling
test scores....
* The fact that Raymore Peculiar dropped Investigations because its
teachers in the junior high school felt that their students
were coming to them grossly unprepared....

* Despite the outcry of 50 or more leading mathematicians in our state
with reference to how ill prepared TERC leaves our kids
to progress into Algebra.....
* Despite the fact that Eldon does not think the same program meets their GLEs so they added a textbook mid semester because their
kids needed it.....(remember our kids have those same
GLEs...let's see not working for them, but just fine for us...
how does that happen?)
*Despite that a huge number of our kids cannot read at their grade levels and the majority of these problems are word problems and
it would appear that based on those facts that we have set
our kids up for failure....
*Despite the fact that NO ONE will answer our very valid questions.....

... here we are...I could go on and on and on, but they don't care about those facts. Our kids are stuck and we have absolutely no say. (Wow, I just heard myself say that and I don't like the way that rolls off of my tongue. Does that feel so wrong to you, too?) No matter how much evidence there is against it, that matters not. I am afraid to say that unless we come together and protest our kids will have to fail just like all of these other schools before us have for our district officials to pay attention. As my husband always says "experience is the best teacher" and we have loads of it to look at when it comes to this issue. Unfortunately no one in our administration appears to care about that. Our kids will have to fail by their standards and I hate to say it, but they will... just like they have everywhere else all over our nation. But by then it will be too late for our kids.
I will fill you in on all of the other details of the school board meeting that happened tonight on Thursday night. Looking forward to seeing you there. We will start our petition push then. We will eat @5:30p.m. and start our presentation by 6:00 p.m. with the plan to be done by 7:15 p.m.