SOCMM LETTER TO THE CVUSD

 

 SUPERINTENDENT AND SCHOOL BOARD

 

 February 27, 2005

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Dear Superintendent Fraisse and honorable Conejo Valley Unified School Board members:

 

            When our group contacted Professor James Milgram of Stanford University , co-author of the California Math Standards, he informed us of the following regarding Everyday Math (EM):

 

“…the recent publication of the book "On Evaluating Curricular Effectiveness" by the National Academy of Science, which is the report of a blue ribbon panel of the National Research Council … flatly states that none of the programs like EM have any body of valid research that shows they are effective...Thus, there is irrefutable evidence that this program does not have valid research showing it is effective... So it is safe to conclude that the district is trying a highly experimental, controversial, and unproven program on the district children.”  [My emphasis added] 

 

The following link will take you to the published study which reviewed the body of research from EM and other math programs. http://books.nap.edu/books/0309092426/html/189.html#pagetop

 

            There is outstanding scientific proof which indicates that students achieve tremendous improvements using CA approved math programs.   http://www.nychold.com/talk-hook-040404.pdf

http://www.nychold.com/report-wbwh-040619.pdf

 

            Dr. Martha Schwartz provided our group with a comparison chart of the 2004 math test scores for the Palos Verdes and Manhattan Beach Unified School Districts (see attached pdf).  Manhattan Beach uses Saxon Math a CA approved program, and obtained superior test scores to those of Palos Verdes which uses Everyday Math.  The higher scores obtained by Manhattan Beach become far more significant when you compare the demographics of the two districts.  7% of the students for Manhattan Beach were designated of Asian descent, while Palos Verdes had a 25.9% Asian student population.  Asian students have consistently been noted to out perform other demographic categories in mathematics, yet Palos Verdes schools using Everyday Math failed to out score the Manhattan Beach schools that used a CA approved math curriculum.

http://nces.ed.gov/timss/Results03.asp?Quest=1

http://www.hvk.org/articles/0203/258.html

http://www.slais.ubc.ca/courses/libr500/00-01-wt2/www/L_Yan/Case_Study.htm

http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/96/1220/ed2.html

http://www.postgradandbeyond.mq.edu.au/enewsletter/education/issue_4_stories/story3.htm

 

Perhaps the members of the school board and district Superintendent were never provided sufficient information by the CVUSD curriculum committees, so that you could be made aware of the controversy which surrounds math programs such as Everyday Math.  The following links should provide enough information to make the history and the opposition to these math programs abundantly clear.

http://www.educationnext.org/20052/28.html

http://mathematicallycorrect.com/riley.htm

http://www.nychold.com/em.html

http://socmm.home.att.net/page0002.html

 

Knowing these facts makes it difficult to understand the district’s decision to ignore the SBE approved programs and instead use the highly deficient Everyday Math curriculum. We urge district officials to implement math “choice” immediately and provide students an approved math curriculum if they wish.   Please, do not allow the “experiment” with CVUSD K-6 math education to continue without also providing parents a “choice” that children receive math instruction using textbooks aligned with the CA math standards and annual achievement tests.  Professor Wayne Bishop of CSU LA analyzed the Banyan School math scores over time, and they indicate a drop since the implementation of EM, it appears the CVUSD math “experiment” is failing.  http://socmm.home.att.net/page0008.html

 

My husband and I wrote Dr. Fraisse on October 12, 2004 regarding our concerns with the deficiencies of the Everyday Math curriculum.  We received a letter dated November 2, 2004 from Martha Mutz the Director of Curriculum for the CVUSD which stated (and I am quoting here), “The SBE identified Everyday Math as an outstanding program.”  In fact, the SBE 2001 Mathematics Adoption Report clearly states in black and white that Everyday Math was rejected and failed to meet the CA math standards.

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ma/im/documents/mathrpt.pdf

 

The truth is that the SBE did not identify Everyday Math as an outstanding program, it did however reject the program, and we hope that you will notify all CVUSD employees that informing parents otherwise is neither appropriate nor ethical    We have organized Save Our Children from Mediocre Math (SOCMM) to advocate on behalf of parents to ensure there is a “choice” for students to be instructed using a state approved math curriculum. 

 

In addition to promoting “Math Choice” for CVUSD students through our web site http://socmm.home.att.net we will work diligently in the future to promote school district candidates that support our goals and we are hopeful that our efforts would help to see those candidates elected.  We look forward to hearing from each of you and working together to provide the students of the CVUSD with the “choice” to use a state approved math curriculum. 

 

           

Sincerely,

Jo Anne Cobasko

Founder of Save Our Children from Mediocre Math

Web site:   http://socmm.home.att.net

 

CVUSD VOTER INFORMATION

 

CVUSD School Board Candidates

 

SOCMM             CVUSD math choice     SOCMM             SOCMM