According to a memorandum on K-12 education sent to state math leaders, school principals, and school district superintendents on May 4, 2009, from State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Randy Dorn, regarding high school mathematics core/comprehensive instruction materials final recommendations, “Superintendent Dorn’s final high school recommendations are based on both the work of the OSPI and the SBE as directed by statute. The final recommendation for high school is: Holt Mathematics.”
Unfortunately for Issaquah School District (ISD) high school students, the ISD Board is strongly considering adopting the controversial “Discovery Math” series of textbooks for high school algebra, algebra 2, and geometry.
Discovery Math takes an “investigative approach.”
The Seattle School District was successfully sued in King County Superior Court on Feb. 4 for adoption of the Discovery Math curriculum.
According to a King 5 News report from Jan. 26 — “The plaintiffs say the Discovery Math series adopted last year does a poor job, especially with minority students who are seeing an achievement gap widen. A leading opponent of the approach is University of Washington Atmospheric Sciences Professor Cliff Mass, who says the ‘discovery’ method just doesn’t work. ‘They’re not being taught, this is an approach, given examples, then given practice. They don’t work that way. It’s more group learning, playing with manipulatives, with little games, and a lot of students don’t do well with this.”
In the same news report, Martha McLaren, a retired Seattle high-school math teacher and one of the plaintiffs in the suit, said “We have statistics that show that most students do not thrive with this kind of approach.”
The King 5 report also said “a consultant hired to review the Discovery series did not recommend it, calling it ‘mathematically compromised.’”
The materials are currently displayed at the ISD administration offices. I understand there is a meeting from 3:15 – 4:45 p.m., Saturday March 6, at the Issaquah Library, for concerned students, parents, and citizens to organize and fight against the pending adoption of said textbooks.
Act quickly and with tact so our students have a fighting chance for a successful future within the ISD’s high school math curriculum.
Travis Thompson
Sammamish
