Seattle Schools Community Forum

Oddly, nothing from SPS.  But here's a post from committee member, Rick Burke.  Thanks, Rick The district has not yet announced the results from the K-5 Math Adoption Committee (MAC) meeting on last Friday, but it was a public meeting, so there is no reason I can't share the outcome of committee deliberations and some of my personal opinions about the process and final program selection. The MAC met on Friday April 25th for an all-day deliberation meeting to choose from one of the three finalist programs (enVision, Go Math, and Math in Focus) , plus the alternate recommendation of "no program".     Jumping straight to what folks really want to know, enVision will be the program recommendation put before the school board, and if approved, the new books should be in the schools this fall.  While this was not my ideal choice for a math program, the positives do outweigh the negatives in my opinion. A bit about the process - pros an...

From the Seattle Math Coalition: FYI,  the district has changed their math adoption plan based on budget concerns.   The proposed K-8 adoption which was supposed to be in classrooms in Fall of 2014 is now only a K-5 adoption, with 6-8 to be delayed for another year!   This files in the face of common sense:   1)  CMP2 is a train wreck for families without stellar teachers or family/tutor support   2)  Despite a goal of a 7-year adoption cycle, the CMP2 materials are already at year 7.  They are a year older than EDM, yet the district feels more pressure to replace EDM.   3)  Citing poverty, $1.5M is budgetwd for K-5 adoption, however $2M additional is budgeted for Common Core training.  Will they train with old books and then replace them a year later?    4)  The big elephant in the room:  In 2014-15 academic year, state assessments will be based on Common Core.  If Seattle ...