Comments

TERC has a Teacher's Reference Manual which I have heard is available via places like ABE books on the internet, and probably from TERC as well. Yes, it is true TERC has no textbook. And TERC has special instructions to the teacher for how to deal with students who may insist on using the "standard" algorithms (the problem students as it were). The passage so amazed Steve Wilson of Johns Hopkins, that when a bunch of us were briefing some staffers on the Hill about the problems w/ math ed, he brought the book with him and showed them. Lots of jaw dropping, etc.

As far as Everyday Mathematics, my daughter's school uses that. There is a Student's Reference Manual which is a glossary/encyclopedia type thing, with topics in alphabetical order. I believe it can be purchased from EM directly (the Wright Group handles dist of EM stuff). I have used it when going through certain problems. LIke they have charts the student has to fill in showing equivalent forms of fractions; e.g., express 1/4 as a decimal, and as a percent. Well for 1/4 and 1/5, it was fairly easy to show how to get to the equivalent fractions in terms of 100ths. But then they throw in 3/8 and I wasn't sure how to explain that to her. Turns out her teacher showed her the correct way, so eventually I showed her that, but before I knew that I turned to the Student's Reference Manual. For fractions like 1/4 and 1/5 it did what I had mentioned above. Then it says for fractions like 3/8, use a calculator. As if that isn't bad enough, it then spends detailed instructions on what keys to push on the calculator. Great! If they spent as much time explaining standard algorithms as they do to explain how to operate a calculator, kids might actually learn something.

-- BarryGarelick - 24 Jun 2005

"There is a Student's Reference Manual which is a glossary/encyclopedia type thing, with topics in alphabetical order."

I have never found that thing to be of much use in helping figure out what they want my son to do at any given time.

I'm so relieved to be working with a real math text (Prentice Hall Math course 1) again, I just can't tell you. Even if the format is busy and distracting.

-- CarolynJohnston - 24 Jun 2005

Agreed; the Student's Reference Manual doesn't give you all the clues, but it gives you some. The Teacher's Reference Manual is more informative.

By the way, the DC Public School Board last week voted to adopt EM, and Math Trailblazers for K-5 and Connected Math for middle school. There was no pre-announcement, no public viewing of any assessment, nothing. I sent a FOIA letter to the DCPS Board asking if such documentation exists, and if so, to get a copy of it. I tutored students in a DC school. The teachers will go along with it (since the Board bought into EM's professional development program), and the parents do not have the income necessary to send their kids to Sylvan or other similar centers. It's a travesty. I also submitted testimony, much good that it did anyone. All testimony (including that from Bas Braams, a physicist and visiting professor at Emory) was dismissed by Dr. Janey, the superintendent as being "short on research and long on opinion".

Any lawyers out there? Is the imposition of inferior textbooks a form of child abuse? I maintain it is.

-- BarryGarelick - 24 Jun 2005

Oh my God, Barry, I can't imagine a worse lineup. Everyday Math is the best of them. Trailblazers and Connected Math?

This whole thing is incredible. This is the Domino Theory of education. Although California did come around.

-- CarolynJohnston - 24 Jun 2005

California came around due to parental revolts in communities where there was a lot of high tech companies, plus you had top math professors from Berkeley and Stanford fighting for better standards. Similarly, in Massachusetts. You'd think you'd have the same thing in NYC, but they play a different kind of politics there.

-- BarryGarelick - 25 Jun 2005

"I can't imagine a worse lineup."

How about MathLand followed by CMP?

-- SteveH - 25 Jun 2005

OK. MathLand followed by CMP would be worse.

-- CarolynJohnston - 25 Jun 2005

I vote for TERC followed by CMP followed by IMP.

-- BarryGarelick - 26 Jun 2005

And TERC has special instructions to the teacher for how to deal with students who may insist on using the "standard" algorithms (the problem students as it were). The passage so amazed Steve Wilson of Johns Hopkins, that when a bunch of us were briefing some staffers on the Hill about the problems w/ math ed, he brought the book with him and showed them. Lots of jaw dropping, etc.

-- CatherineJohnson - 26 Jun 2005

Oops--what I meant to say was, I'd like to get a copy of this book.

-- CatherineJohnson - 26 Jun 2005

I need to get back in touch with the dad in MA who is suing the state.

This is something that amazes me: special needs kids have an entitlement to 'FAPE,' free and appropriate public education.

You can hire lawyers (we just did) and go into due process, etc.

Not that this does you much good; Andrew is entitled, by federal law, to a summer program and, as I write this, does not have one.

So we're shelling out for very high taxes & a lawyer ...

OK, that's off-topic.

But regular ed kids don't have IEPs.

One of the teachers at my school said she prefers to teach special needs kids, because she's got the IEP, and she can insist everyone stick to it.

Last spring, after Christopher had flunked 2 out of 6 unit tests, no one from the school said boo to me.

If I hadn't been paying attention, I would have had no idea what had happened.

And it's VERY easy not to pay attention.

I didn't find out until a couple of months ago that he had flunked Unit 5!

I was in the thick of trying to meet my Temple deadline (actually I was in the thick of having missed the deadline and having my entire professional world furiously angry with me), I was working morning, noon, and night AND weekends ... and I missed the fail on Unit 5.

Apparently Ed missed it, too.

He'd been handling all the homework, and teaching Christopher all his math at nights after he didn't learn it at school, and, of course, working full-time.

We're involved and reasonably conscienctious parents, and we didn't know our child had flunked an entire unit of math.

-- CatherineJohnson - 26 Jun 2005

We've tried to get our daughter an IEP, but have been told repeatedly that her diagnostic tests (which we paid for) and her grades are not low enough to qualify her for that. That left us with the alternative of letting her fail her classes at school, which is something we have refused to do. So we spend a lot of time with her at home to ensure she keeps up with school.

-- BarryGarelick - 27 Jun 2005

Barry, can you get her the other classification, the...oh gosh, I've forgotten what it is.

It's a 'soft' special ed classification.

It doesn't have much teeth, but I think it's worth something.

Keep us posted on how things progress.

My sense is that a highly structured, research-based program like Saxon will keep her head above water.

(When I say 'research-based,' I mean that Saxon respects and 'implements' all of the salient research on learning. Distributed practice, incremental approach, etc. Those phenomena have been known for years. (Actually, I'm not sure what the research is on the incremental approach. The research on distributed practice is rock-solid.)

I've also seen, all over the web, and have experienced it here, too, that Saxon Math is fantastic for a student's confidence, especially when the student has been having a hard time.

It is a classic behavioral program in that sense: ALL questions are written to be exactly at the level of the student, not miles ahead.

-- CatherineJohnson - 27 Jun 2005

I don't know if you ever used a real-life 'programmed learning' text.

My first job out of college was writing them for pharmaceutical companies.

The whole point of a programmed learning text was, essentially, 'errorless learning,' though I don't think they called it that at the time.

In a successful programmed learning text, the student gets each question correct.

That's Saxon Math.

-- CatherineJohnson - 27 Jun 2005