Hooray!! I got answers to may questions via email

I received answers to my questions submitted through the Math adoption form on the SPS website. The questions were sent on March 25.

Outstanding only 15 days to get an answer. This sure beats most of my significant questions to SPS that are never answered directly.

Ms. Fedio gives clear direct answers and for that I am most thankful.

"Fedio, Nicole" wrote:

-----Original Message-----
From: MathAdoption
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 11:24 PM
To: Fedio, Nicole
Subject: You have feedback
-------------------------------------------------

First_Name: Danaher
Last_Name: Dempsey
Stakeholder2: Community_Member
Stakeholder4: Teacher
School/Dept: WSHS
E-mail_address: dempsey_dan@yahoo.com
Comments_Questions:

How can you say that Singapore is a supplement when at Broadview Thompson and many other schools the extra practice books are unused and still in boxes?

The supplemental materials are at the schools and it is up to each school as to how they are choosing to use the materials.


Please describe in detail when this Singapore supplementation began. Some elementary teachers are unaware that these books are in the buildings.

We did not want to overwhelm our elementary school teachers with learning two separate curricula at the same time. Thus, EM was rolled out first. This is not a one-year process, but an adoption that will take time to roll out completely.


The SPS did not purchase either the 2 textbooks or the 2 workbooks at each grade level, how exactly are the teachers supplementing from the extra practice book?

We deliberately purchased the extra practice books from Singapore. It is not the core program. Teachers are supplementing to address the computational fluency needs of their students.

Now that the National Math Report is available and it clearly advises avoiding Everyday Math, what are the plans for k-5?

We have not changed our plans for K-5.

Now that the National Math Panel has a clear focus on Authentic Algebra; what is the district's math plan? The SPS put a system in place without a focus on Authentic Algebra --> EM, CMP2, IMP or Core-Plus are 180 degrees opposite the NAMP recommendations.

The high school math adoption is not completed. We have moved the timeline and plan to adopt new high school materials for the 2009-2010 school year.

--------- Now What? -------------

So I sent the following in reply:

Ms. Fedio,

Thanks for the reply.

As someone who has followed this process closely. I find it rather bizarre that Singapore would be used as a supplement for computational fluency.

The various explanations made since May 30, 2007 left most everyone with the impression that the 25% time supplement from Singapore materials would have started by February at the latest.

Ms Wise and Ms Santorno have both talked about the NCTM focal points and a narrowing of topics.

To the casual observer it appears that at the elementary level the only significant direction in the "Fidelity of Implementation" model is to follow the pacing plan for Everyday Math. This seems contradictory with the idea of narrowing focus.

Given that School Board Policy D44.00 requires focus, and that the SPS seems not to have a focus in Mathematics as required by SPS board policy perhaps a few changes should be made for next year. Do you agree?

On April 15th the new Math standards k-8 will be officially released. I do hope the plan for next year will include a focus on content that significantly reduces the number of topics per grade, perhaps to align with the state Standards. This would require a substantial reduction as the number advocated in the Everyday Math pacing guide is far above the numbers advocated in each of the following: the Focal Points, the NMAP report, or the WA Standards K-8 effective 4-15-08.

When do you expect to have a grade level content match of Everyday Math with the official K-8 math standards that will be released by the SBE on April 15th, 2008?

I still have extremely large concerns that the k-8 program of the SPS in math is not preparing students for Authentic Algebra in either 8th or 9th grade at this time. Do you plan any changes to prepare students more throughly for Authentic Algebra?

Thanks for your thoughtful responses.

Dan






Tue Mar 25 22:24:00 PST 2008