From "Arthur": (name removed by parentadvocates)

To the press: there's a national backlash against absurd new new math programs, and I'm leading
a one man suicide charge against the math program at Lake Washington ever since it was
approved in 1999 by the ignorant LW school board who says I'm the only parent who has ever
complained against it. Bellevue also has a parent's group who has produced a study with
similar conclusions.

Arthur

My good for nothing school board member stated in her campaign that believes that students should be taught basic skills, and is a liar since she is sticking with her support of the dis-connected Dale Seymour math program which does not teach ANY basic skills at any grade level. She told me she's sure that
students are learning how to add fractions, but my 6th grade son Eric is just getting this piece of
crap anything-but-the-right answer spawn of satan NCTM textbook, while my 5th
grader is doing just fine with normal math worksheets with long division and multiplication,
which is banned in Dale Seymour. Principal Jeff Newport promised 2 years ago that there
would be instruction and testing of normal arithmetic, but that simply hasn't been the
case in Eric's 6th grade class.

I couldn't even get a reasonable response from another board member who still gave me the "well, maybe the old way was good for smart kids like you and me, but I'm sure these folks know what they're doing and I don't see how this method of instruction can be all bad". Superintendent Don Saul told me
"we're moving forward, it's too late to go backwards."

Hopefully I can follow up the WASL crowd with a math presentation in Kirkland. Parents simply have no idea of how bad these math textbooks are, or that the reason the homework is so difficult is that the idiots who wrote the textbook, and the teachers who assign the problems without checking to see
what it takes to solve these problems dont' know what the heck they're doing. Add the school board that approved the textbook, and the superintendent who is still committed to implementing fuzzy math. Seattle also uses these books.

Slides that "prove" that CMP kids get higher test scores than other kids

It's total nonsense.

I just went over my kids 2nd grade 6 connected math fraction / percent section. I was
mistaken.

It's just the first book that has no mention of adding or multiplying fractions. It's in the
second book.

Did you know that the entire instruction on adding and multiplying fractions consists of

"algorithms are very important. You will work in a group to devise one or more methods of
adding / multiplying fractions. Try you methods on these examples" ARGH.

No mention of common denominators, even in the index.

I thought these were the folks where algorithms and methods are verboten??

The entire instruction on percent is:
6% of 1.00 is 6 cents.
6% sales tax on 1.00 would total 1.06

and draws 2 100 charts with .01 in each square, all filled in for the 1st 100,
and 6 in the 2nd 100. (Anybody care to guess how long it would take a kid
to draw one of these???)


The first thing they're supposed to figure out is

what's 6% of 6.75

Try to come up with two different ways.

No mention of convert 6% to .06, and multiply, and round the results to the
nearest cent.

Then they say that you compute a tip based on the cost of the item
combined with the sales tax. Who the heck is crazy enough to
do that?

F[boy with arabic name] and T[boy with asian sounding name] buy a lunch for $11.45 If F spends $2.75 more than T, with 6% sales tax and they tip based on price after adding tax, how much does each boy pay (Can you say solve for x, let F be x + 2.75 and T = x....)

If 3 balls are $3.00 but one box of 6 balls is 4.00, what percent is saved by buying the big box [There is absolutely no instruction that the formula for computing % difference is (big - small)/big number x 100]

It took me, an MIT engineering masters degree 30 minutes to do the homework, and I knew exactly how to do it. What's a normal student / parent supposed to do??

Now how in the hell did people figure out that we're suppose to assign kids homework without a clue as to the methods necessary to solve any of these problems? I also heard a parent complain at Juanita's Mothers Against WASL talk that at Juanita High, they're assigning math problems without any instruction, which they assign grades to, and THEN they discuss correct solutions AFTER 3/4 of the kids couldn't figure it out and were graded as failing accordingly.

That's exactly how the they assign WASL-like problems of the week at AG Bell for 4th graders. (And that's how the WASL test is structured - they test you on problems that kids have never seen a solution method for).

Thank god they don't teach remedial math this way (yet....)


Singing the Blues While Raising the Roof - school superintendent Don Saul - Brief Article
School Administrator, May, 2000 by Jay P. Goldman

LINK

When Don Saul retires this summer wearing a career-capping honor as the 2000 National Superintendent of the Year, he will return to a youthful passion--guitar playing and singing--that has much to do with the way he is treasured in his northern Colorado community.

Saul, who is 57 and father of three grown children, jokes about his lingering musical interests. ("I'm looking forward to redeveloping my callouses," he told one newspaper reporter.) During his days as a teacher some 30 years ago, he and his 12-string guitar joined his wife on folk, blues and gospel harmonies during weekend gigs at local clubs to supplement his $430 per month take-home pay.

Saul hasn't forgotten what it means to struggle financially during the past seven years as superintendent of the Thompson R2-J School District, one of the lowest funded districts in Colorado. Of the state's 176 districts, Thompson is third from the bottom in terms of per-pupil aid from the state.

In spite of the limited resources, the 14,200-student district has found ways under Saul's leadership to be innovative in curriculum and instruction and to settle annual contracts with the teachers' union with nary a formal grievance in the last five years. He also helped to create a system of performance bonuses for teachers as measured by 10 standards, including student achievement.

"Don makes us look good. He sets us up to take credit for his wisdom," said Frances Moore, president of the school board, in her nomination letter for the Superintendent of the Year Award. "He has shifted us from a preoccupation with budget issues to a focus on student achievement and high expectations."

Saul, who joined the Thompson district in 1987 to oversee financial services and later became deputy superintendent, said it made sense to embrace standards-based education to close the loop of the instructional process. "We've been hearing for years about the role of assessment in our teaching, and now we need to apply the same principles to education itself: We teach, we assess and we use the results of the assessment to evaluate and improve our instruction," he said.

Even in promoting these loftier expectations of teachers, the superintendent has shown a sensitivity to staff workload that strikes some observers as uncommon. He recently dusted off his guitar to perform a few gigs with local teachers, including the memorable homespun number "The SBE (Standards-Based Education) Blues."

When he was honored last year as the Colorado Superintendent of the Year, Saul was lauded for educating the public and the state legislature about the dense world of education funding. He helped to form and still chairs the Colorado School Finance Project, which promotes equitable and adequate distribution of school aid. The task is made more difficult in a state whose governor and state education commissioner haven't been viewed with fondness by many local school leaders.

Nancy Popenhagen, president of the teachers' union in the Thompson schools, admires Saul for his skill at communicating the complicated. "He can break down [the jargon] into terms that help other people understand," she said.

Saul said he took on finance reform as a personal and professional crusade to prevent further undercutting of public education, which he views as a bastion of democratic ideals. "Our society tends to increasingly classify people--who has, who hasn't, who does, who doesn't. ... Public education should help us keep from classifying."

One of his most satisfying days as a semi-regular in front of the legislature came during the 1996 session when he was invited to testify to a state Senate Education Committee hearing on a school finance bill. His primary antagonist, a powerful senator, already had given his testimony--full of what Saul viewed as inaccurate assumptions, faulty conclusions and cause-to-effect fallacies.

But fighting a debilitating case of the flu, the senator was forced to depart early, allowing Saul for once to convey accurate and credible information without being refuted at every turn.

Subsequently, appropriate amendments to the bill were introduced at 3 a.m., and thus, the lowest funded districts have been substantially assisted.

Saul likes to recall the episode as a career highlight, quipping, "I'll take the handicap every time."

Jay Goldman is the editor of The School Administrator. E-mail: jgoldman@aasa.org

BIO STATS: DON SAUL

Currently: superintendent, Thompson School District R2-J, Loveland, Colo.

Earlier: senior consultant on finance, Colorado Department of Education

Age: 57

Greatest Influence on Career: Two professors at University of Colorado at Boulder. One of them, Ken Hopkins, a statistics professor, is the only one I know who could bring a spiritual quality to behavioral research.

Best Professional Day: Successfully influencing the state legislature on a school finance bill that provided large increases to the lowest-funded schools.

Books at Bedside: Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie and Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor

Biggest Blooper: Imposing a modest fee or textbooks and instructional materials a short time before a mill levy election in the face of desperate financial circumstances. A local reporter quoted me describing the student fee as voluntary so the political cost was substantial--a lopsided defeat.

A Reason Why I'm an AASA Member: Our professional associations have a responsibility to build strength within and alliances across any professional boundaries if we're to help deal with villains and charlatans afoot who offer oversimplified and misleading answers.

COPYRIGHT 2000 American Association of School Administrators
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group



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