Here is an article by Julie Wootton about the Investigations math text series. I posted two comments on this article as the final statements were misleading. –E.M.
Strange New Math Textbooks – Curriculum = ??
By Ellen Mandeville
District violated policy with new math texts – link to Mt. Express opinion piece
The new mathematics textbooks implementation by the Blaine County School District (BCSD) Administration is perplexing at best and illegal at worst. It’s not a “new Mathematics Curriculum” implementation because – according to Patty McLean, BCSD Director of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning – there is no new mathematics curriculum written and approved by the BCSD Board of Trustees. Continue reading
Video: BCSD Board of Trustees Meeting 10/18/2011
See the public comment by Kathy Baker, Jamie Sharp and Dan Beste at last Tuesday’s BCSD Board of Trustees Meeting. The Public Comment begins at 4:20 (4 min. 20 sec.) point of the broadcast. Audio of these speakers is quite low, so turn your volume up; they can be heard.
What do you think of the concerns we’ve raised on this site? What do you think about the current math textbooks, their selection and their implementation? If you have interest in these matters, leave a comment, or Like us on Facebook.
Filed under News
Laying Requests Before the School Board of Trustees
About fifteen parents of Blaine County students, concerned about the new Math textbooks purchased by the BCSD Administration, attended tonight’s BCSD Board of Trustees Meeting. Not only did they attend, three of them spoke. Kathy Baker carried a letter addressed to the Board and signed by the parents in the room as she made her way to the podium.
“I am here to request that the Board of Trustees inquire into the process by which the Blaine County School District Administration chose Mathematics textbooks to be purchased. Specifically to inquire into its lack of compliance with District Policy Number 602.3 and Idaho Legal Code 33-118A,” stated Mrs. Baker. Previously this group requested the Board of Trustees review Idaho Statute Title 33 as it pertains to the math adoption process.
What Curriculum to Aim Toward?
by Ellen Mandeville
“Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here.”
– inscription above the gate of Plato’s Academy in Athens
The ancient Greeks believed that the universe was ordered upon logical, discoverable, mathematical theorems; and that discovering mathematical theorems gave humanity a view into the workings of the universe. Mathematics is foundational to all of learning in that it demands clarity of thought, develops logical thinking, inspires self-reliance in thinking, and trains students to think abstractly. (The Educated Child, pp. 279-280, by Bennett, Finn and Cribb)
Filed under Education
Parents of Blaine County Students 