David Brewster Proven Wrong

Remember back in June when David Brewster of Crosscut wrote this article, An election likely to ratify strong councils? He wrote: "Lots of fireworks, but I suspect the current board will survive, sustaining the momentum it has created."

He has now been proven wrong in the primary election in which three of the four incumbents for the school board failed to win a majority of the votes in their primary. The fourth won only a slim majority in his district, his strongest base of support, and now has to run city-wide where the sentiment appears to be anti-incumbent.

I sure would like Mr. Brewster to follow up his prediction with another article in which he checks his accuracy and analyzes any bad guesses.

Comments

dan dempsey said…
The only momentum I've seen from the four is the inertia of regularly attempting to deceive the public. Is that Mr. Brewster's definition of a Strong Council?

Repeatedly these directors seeking reelection have ignored evidence to tell stories they believed the public would like in explaining their votes.

Here is the latest report revealing the truth beneath the Hig School math vote. Press Release from Key Curriculum Press about the sale of their High School "Discovering Series" to Kendal Hunt Publishing.

The Directors attempted to get the public to believe that "Discovering" was a balanced approach.
Note:
1.. The Discovering Name
2.. The shortage of Example Problems
3.. The shortage of practice in problem sets
4.. The Lack of explicit instruction

Now from the Key Press release comes this....

Key has sold six high school mathematics textbook programs to Kendall Hunt Publishing effective August 1, 2011. The sale includes Discovering Algebra, Discovering Geometry, Discovering Advanced Algebra, Precalculus with Trigonometry, Calculus and Statistics in Action. Kendall Hunt Publishing will also assume all contractual obligations towards schools and districts in relation to these programs. Key and Kendall Hunt will work on a smooth transition of the programs, ensuring that the needs of the schools and districts that have adopted these programs will be met as students and teachers return to school.

"This decision is just one outcome of an in-depth analysis of our market and our business strengths," said Coe. "We are the industry leader in dynamic learning tools—tools that powerfully represent the big ideas in mathematics and statistics in highly visual and interactive ways. With more student devices going into more hands – including very exciting developments in tablet computing – now is the time to thoroughly focus on our strengths in this area. We were delighted when Kendall Hunt Publishing, a company we have long admired and respected, decided to acquire our popular, inquiry-based high school mathematics textbook product line."

"The acquisition of Key's highly-respected and effective high school mathematics titles rounds out our roster of digital and print solutions for mathematics and broadens our commitment to the PreK-12 marketplace," said Chad Chandlee, Kendall Hunt president and COO. "Because Discovering Mathematics and Advanced Mathematics are both strong, author-directed programs, the titles are a great fit with our mathematics curricula and align especially well with our new Math Innovations middle grades program, which is currently the only digital math curriculum for grades 6-8."

In the coming months, Key will further analyze the future of its Integrated Mathematics Program® (IMP)
,

--- {{ IMP was the Program that Produced Horrendous results at Cleveland when used for three years with ""Strong Professional Development" provided by the UW}} --

as well as its science programs (Engineering the Future: Science, Technology and the Design Process, and Living By Chemistry).

==================

Despite what the four directors told the public...
Discovering really was an "inquiry-based high school mathematics textbook product line". The Press release confirms this fact.

This makes it similar to IMP. Porter, McLaren, and Mass claimed that "Discovering" would adversely effect ELL and Black student groups just like IMP had done at Cleveland. The 2010 OSPI testing revealed that to be true. ... What fairy story will Steve Sundquist come up with now?
Anonymous said…
Charlie -How was Brewster "proven" wrong? The election hasn't happened yet. None of the incumbents have been eliminated.

The only thing proven in your post(and article comments) is that your really strongly disagree with Brewster and you don't have a problem lying in your post title to try to sway people to your view.

- Bob
Well, Mr. Brewster is wrong in saying this Board has any momentum. If there is, I'm not seeing it.

And if Mr. Brewster was talking about momentum going into the general, well, that's practically all on the challengers side.

Not so sure the title is a lie.
Paul said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said…
I can see how an engineering math type would read the word "Proven" in the title and take issue.

However, given that brewster has been a shill for Billy The Great's "education" garbage, after last Tuesday, brewster sure isn't looking too great.

TheVisionThing
AIES said…
I have to agree with Bob. If anything, the prediction on this Blog that at least two incumbants were not likely to make it out of the primary was proven wrong.
Anonymous said…
And, who knows what the election will bring? The incumbents were in first place in every single primary. "Proven Wrong" is a pretty strong statement. No sense in counting chickens.

-chicken
dan dempsey said…
Seems to me there are a few items to reference in this discussion.

1... That the current Board is a strong one from a leadership perspective. Huhh??? Strong like Stalin or Strong like founded on evidence based decision-making?

2... That victories in the general election by incumbents would confirm Mr. Brewster's reasoning about public confidence in the incumbents to be correct vs. the effect of massive spending by current incumbents. The public needs to read the SAO reports.

3... Where does the funding for Crosscuts originate?
AIES, I didn't predict that.

I said it was possible it could happen (which it was given some incumbents did have more than one challenger).
Charlie Mas said…
Bob is right. I overstated it.
seattle citizen said…
I appreciate the discussion in the first ten comments, asking whether "proven wrong" is too strong or not. It is for this sort of nuanced exploration of ideas that I appreciate this blog. Thanks again to the moderators. It's a reminder to me to be nuanced and careful in my posts (though by nature, perhaps, blog comments are often quickly and ill thought out. Or poorly edited (cough-mine-cough.)
Thanks, commenters, for the "proven wrong" debate: A small point, but well-argued! The small points make up the whole picture of campaigning...or should.

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