Forty-two percent of the class of 2008 has been unable to pass the 10th-grade WASL, which measures understanding of only seventh- and eighth-grade math. The revenues collected by tutoring companies in Washington state have increased 340 percent over the past 10 years. What is going on in our schools?
Most of Washington's public schools are using the curricula known as Everyday Math, TERC Investigations, McDougal-Littell Integrated Math, Pearson Connected Math Program (CMP) and Interactive Math Program (IMP). A good resource for more information about the shortcomings of these curricula can be found at www.wheresthemath.com, a Web site put together by parents, math teachers and university professors.
Prior to 1998, California was using the same low-quality curricula that Washington state is using today. The outcry from parents, teachers and university professors forced the California Board of Education to rewrite its standards in 1998 and to choose curricula aligned with international math standards, such as Singapore and Saxon math.
The results are in, and they are dramatic. Professors William Hook, Wayne Bishop and John Hook in their report "A Quality Math Curriculum in Support of Effective Teaching in Elementary Schools," prove that the choice of high-quality curricula can make all the difference to students. They collected five years of test results, from 1998 through 2002, of 13,000 children in California elementary schools. Of these students, 68 percent were economically disadvantaged, and between 27 percent and 44 percent were English-learning immigrants. Though their teachers had no particular special training, test results for those students taught with curricula aligned with international math standards and Saxon Math rose from far-below average to above-average. Their performance was superior to students whose districts continued to use the old curriculum.
Gov. Gregoire's Washington Learns Final Report, page 25, recommends that our state administrators for education identify new math curricula aligned with international standards. This requirement is also part and parcel of Washington Learns' plan for school accountability.
In the meantime, Olympia is bogged down in selecting citizen panels and rewrite committees, hiring independent consultants and writing endless reports at taxpayer expense. The path ahead is clear. Saxon and Singapore math curricula exist and can be put in our classrooms (nearly) overnight. Our children are working under the handicap of second-rate curricula. They need first-class math curricula in order to compete in the global economy. Or do we really want Microsoft and Boeing to hire California's children over our own?
Liv Svendsen Finne is Adjunct Scholar for Education at Washington Policy Center.
