METS Coalition

Missouri METS Coalition has a new, improved website. Let's hope that they've stopped promoting those mediocre math programs too!
(scroll down to see the red text)

Some of the links on that post don't work anymore, but luckily I had inserted the actual text from their old website. This is the only thing I can find on those grants right now, so maybe they've stopped their coercive practices. One can hope!

*NEW* US Coalition for World Class Math

UNITED STATES COALITION for WORLD CLASS MATH
REPORT ON MARCH 2010 COMMON CORE STANDARDS DRAFT
AVAILABLE HERE

THE PUBLIC NEEDS TO KNOW!

I couldn't have said it better!

Take A Stand Against Inquiry-Based Math

Please read materials available here and consider helping the Seattle Math Group in their stand against inquiry-based math programs.

MUST READ:
Educational Psychologist, 2006
Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist,Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching

MUST (MUST) READ:
How Much and What Type of Guidance is Optimal for Learning from Instruction?*
For the past half-century,studies examining the interaction between student aptitudes and different forms of instructional treatments (most often called aptitude x treatment or ATI studies)have consistently reported that students with lower ability levels and/or less prior knowledge and/or lower motivation are more vulnerable to learning difficulties when instruction is incomplete, unstructured,or gives inaccurate information (e.g., Cronbach & Snow, 1977; Kyllonen & Lajoie, 2003).

ACT-R Learning Theory and Math
One does read claims that such cognitive analyses are no longer relevant to the new curriculum standards but such claims are simply false. Instead, we have found that the learning of the new curriculum consists of componential learning just like the old curriculum (Koedinger, Anderson, Hadley & Mark, 1995). It is every bit as important to practice these components of “new look” curriculum to achieve a high level of mastery as it was to practice the components of the “traditional” curriculum.

Mathematically Sound Foundations

Math Programs and Reviews

Everything you'll need to learn about the push toward National Education Standards

GREAT COMICS TOO!!

Taking Action

Great Information Available Here:
Mathematically Sound Foundations

SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS TAKE NOTE

MUST READ: Ruling in Seattle Court Case

Seattle Math Group

February 4, 2010 – Judge Julie Spector today announced her finding of “arbitrary and capricious” in the Seattle School Board's May 6 vote to adopt the Discovering Math series of high school texts despite insufficient evidence of the series' effectiveness.

Judge Spector's decision states, “The court finds, based upon a review of the entire administrative record, that there is insufficient evidence for any reasonable Board member to approve the selection of the Discovering series.”

[Read more (and the actual court decision) on the link above]

If you would like to help (even in a small way) to defray the costs of this effort please consider donating to:

Seattle Math Group,
c/o Martha Mclaren
7020 18th Ave. SW, J22
Seattle, WA 98106

Martha is a retired Seattle Public Schools math teacher.

(HOORAY FOR MARTHA!!)

Tax Dollars at Work - Reprise!

Everyday Math and Investigations are
two of the Elementary Programs given
competitive priority for eMints/METS grants.
(see #8 at above link)
The math programs listed there are the same
programs in the report
On Evaluating Curricular Effectiveness:
Juding the Quality of K-12 Mathematics Evaluations
Committee for a Review of the Evaluation Data
on the Effectiveness of NSF-Supported and Commercially
Generated Mathematics Curriculum Materials

In response to our charge, the committee finds that:
The corpus of evaluation studies as a whole across the 19 programs studied does not permit one to determine the effectiveness of individual programs with high degree of certainty, due to the restricted number of studies for any particular curriculum, limitations in the array of methods used, and the uneven quality of the studies.

Therefore, according to our charge, we recommend that:

No second phase of this evaluation review should be conducted to determine the effectiveness of any particular program or set of curricular programs dependent on the current database.

Your tax dollars are at work, promoting these
commercial products in MO

Another Study including Investigations

And check out this district's savings after dropping EDM:
Article about Everyday Math

TERC=Taking Excessive Risks with our Children

Everyday Math

One Step Ahead of the Train Wreck

(a father's perspective)

NSF Funding for K-12 Math Programs

School math books, nonsense, and the National Science Foundation
http://www.csun.edu/~vcmth00m/nsf.html

On Evaluating Curricular Effectiveness: Judging the Quality of K-12 Mathematics Evaluations, Committee for a Review of the Evaluation Data on the Effectiveness of NSF-Supported and Commercially Generated Mathematics Curriculum Materials
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309092426

That is an "and" I'm reading, right?

Exactly when were tax-payers recruited as investors?