Adam DeWitt's List: Everyday Math

The answer, according to the consultants: It's not the program, but the way it's supported, that's dragging down achievement.
Among the findings and recommendations:
• From the beginning, the district didn't conduct enough training so teachers, principals and parents could get the reasoning behind the program.
That lack of understanding has persisted over the years due to teacher turnover.
• There's insufficient training even now for new teachers and teachers new to their grade levels -- just two half-day sessions.
• Except for in certain schools, veteran elementary school teachers don't have an established way to get support in teaching math, either.
• The math program needs to be lined up more closely with state standards, on which state achievement tests are based. These are the tests that judge whether a student is proficient, advanced, or not proficient.
Local math standards, which don't match either the state ones or the math text, should be dropped.
• Teachers should spend more time teaching math than they do now, and some part of the time should be devoted to math facts, such as multiplication.


Read more: http://www.adn.com/2011/06/26/1937576/school-district-advised-to-keep.html#ixzz1dpC8Oup9
• From the beginning, the district didn't conduct enough training so teachers, principals and parents could get the reasoning behind the program.

That lack of understanding has persisted over the years due to teacher turnover.

• There's insufficient training even now for new teachers and teachers new to their grade levels -- just two half-day sessions.

• Except for in certain schools, veteran elementary school teachers don't have an established way to get support in teaching math, either.

• The math program needs to be lined up more closely with state standards, on which state achievement tests are based. These are the tests that judge whether a student is proficient, advanced, or not proficient.

Local math standards, which don't match either the state ones or the math text, should be dropped.

• Teachers should spend more time teaching math than they do now, and some part of the time should be devoted to math facts, such as multiplication.