A parent wrote to ask what alternative there is to “Investigations”. There are plenty of them, but it’s probably premature to lobby for a specific program at this point, because it remains to be seen which curricula the district will be considering as an alternative to “Investigations” when it finally decides to make a switch. If you are searching for something to do with your kids at home right now, however, you may want to consider a program that many SCASD parents have found to be helpful, Singapore Math. On our old web site, one parent wrote:
I use Singapore Math for my 2nd and 5th graders. I use the US ED, and I use both textbooks and workbooks. These are beautiful books. Math concepts are explained conceptually in textbooks, and you will find many practice exercises in Workbooks. My girls love these books.
In general, the US ED is one year ahead of what our kids learn at school. Â For my 5th grader, I ordered this March the books 4A, 4B, and they were just fine for her.
Another parent explained some of the specifics of the program:
There are both textbooks and workbooks. Â You could get both, but IÂ recommend you just start with the workbooks by themselves if you have a decent understanding of math. Â With younger children you’ll have no problem explaining a concept, but the illustrations are so clear and applicable to the problem I found my children learning without much or any help. Â Some of the problems in the 5th/6th grade workbooks you may want textbooks for help to explain concepts. Â I also recommend you get the challenging word problem book for the grade though in older grades you’ll be hard pressed for the kids to work out the problems because they’ll be lacking the SM modeling training. I’d bet there aren’t many kids in our country that can do the algebraic problems SM kids do in 5th grade. Â You might also get one of the Brain Math books which contain some fun problems to work out.
I am fairly new in this group. Can you, please, enlighten me on when was “investigation” introduced to SCASD. What was the key reasons to initiate it. When, if you know, was “curriculum support board(?)” organized and who are voted those people in?
Thank you.
Anastasia,
“Investigations” was selected in 2002-2003 by a committee made up of teachers and district curriculum support staff. The District has confirmed for us the following: Several of the teachers on the committee had only a couple of years’ teaching experience; no peer-reviewed research was evaluated as part of the process; and no outside experts were consulted.
We were told in the spring that this curriculum was chosen not to address any particular shortcoming in math performance, but rather to improve continuity, because teachers in different buildings were doing different things, and this would sometimes cause problems when kids switched schools.
The curriculum support staff are employees of SCASD who answer to the Superintendent, who in turn answers to the SCASD Board of Directors. The directors on the Board are elected to four-year terms by residents of the District.
I was also interested in when was letter from mathematicians of Penn State send to Board if ever? Do you know, if any of the school district, besides our, is still using TERC method?
Thank you.
Here is another question I am trying to get some answers for. If child was introduced to algorithms in kindergarten, should he be involved in some other math, not investigation? As soon as he already “discover” everything that it is to “discover” in “investigation”.
What do you think on this matter?
Anastasia,
The PSU mathematicians sent their letter to the Board in May 2009. Many districts around the country use Investigations – you can find a partial list on the TERC Investigations website. There are other programs like TERC’s that are used in many districts as well, such as Everyday Math.
I think if parents in SCASD could choose which math program their kids would use, very few would choose Investigations. It would be nice if they did it that way…