School Days School Days….dear old golden rule days. Readin’ and Ritin’ and Rithmetic…Taught to the tune of a hickory stick…
There is a nasty little rumor circulating around PWC schools. That rumor deals with the School Board and the Math Textbook Selection Committee. Rumor has it that the school board selected its own text books and disregarded the work of a committee that had spent 5 months meeting and collaborating. When one hears rumors like this, it’s best to turn to videos to see if the rumor is true.
On February 1, the PWC Math Department presented the recommendations of the math textbook adoption committee to the PWC School Board. Mrs. Knight, math supervisor for the county, gave a slide presentation which included committee history, methods utilized, and recommendations. School Board members asked questions for clarity regarding the process and the recommendations. Mrs. Knight answered a continual stream of questions regarding method, participants, conclusions. Her answers appeared honest and direct.
The Textbook Committee involved well over 100 teachers, principals, and parents representing all different grade levels. There were sub committees that matched content from each text book series to the curriculum, compared and contrasted grade level content , evaluated vertical strands, and held on average 16 hours per person of collegial discussion about the text books being scrutinized. Evaluations were put in rubric form and recorded anecdotally.
On February 15, the school board assembled to vote on the recommendations of the textbook committee. Pictures are worth a thousand words. At least 2 of the school board members appeared motivated by pure politics. They were influenced by the contention over the Math Investigations series from previous years and made no bones about it. It was very obvious. So was the eye cutting. I don’t think adults realize they are eye cutting and everyone can see them.
Many of the members spoke. Mrs. Covington and Mrs. Ramirez actually knew what they were talking about. Mrs. Satterwhite and Mr. Trenum wanted us to think they knew what they were talking about. They didn’t. The more they spoke, the more apparent it became that they had never spent a day in their lives as a professional math educator. Both board members tried to convince their audience of the worth of one text book series but failed miserably to really explain what the merit of their product was. I kept hearing words that really didn’t fit the problem or the solution. They failed to spell out why one textbook was better than the other.
The real villains here were not the political hacks. The hacks were transparent and I could have predicted their behavior last summer, if not earlier. The real villains are those who allowed the hacks to have their way by voting with them. The School Board wasted tax payer money. Hundreds of staff hours, perhaps thousands were spent by dedicated staff, parents and administration evaluating textbooks, creating rubrics, doing veritcal alignments and comparing text book coverage of SOL objectives. The School Board simply failed to listen to its staff.
Why make these people waste their time? Mrs. Satterwhite, Mr. Trenum and I suspect Mrs. Bell pretty much had their minds made up long before February 15. They were on a political mission and it was fairly obvious to the skilled eyes of those watching weasel politics in PWC. They had probably made promises to constituents long before that night.
But what of the others? Mrs. Covington, Mr. Johns, Dr. Otaigbe? Mr. Lattin was absent. Mrs. Ramirez voted with the staff. She was the only one who exibited the basic respect to accept the hard work of the staff. Didn’t Mrs. Covington, Mr. Johns, and Dr. Otaigbe have enough respect for the folks that had spent literally thousands of hours of work? Obviously not. They lacked the integrity to vote for the recommendation of over 100 people, most of whom had years of experience as math educators. Some of the parents on the committee had been placed there by the school board members themselves.
What I saw was shameful. I am not sure what was worse, the politics or the chicken bok bok bok to stand up and do the right thing. The behavior was sneaky and underhanded. A ‘friendly amendment’ is unprecedented in PWC school board history. Many of the staff members weren’t really sure what had happened and Supervisor Knight had to ask for clarity on what had been decided. Other staff seemed equally confused. The employees had been blindsided.
The school board needs to abide by its own policy. If it is going to select text books, based on political motivation, then it needs to just do it and save everyone’s time. I am sure those teachers would have rather been at home spending time with their families. I doubt they got paid one extra dime for their efforts. If the school board doesn’t value the professional opinions of the staff, get rid of them and replace them with computerized math programs. See how the constituents like that. Some of those school board members didn’t even know how purchasing works for the textbooks. This was the same person who was speaking of text book rigor. He obviously doesn’t realize that Prince William County School curriculum is not based on a textbook, but on the standards of learning for that subject. Textbooks are a tool. Furthermore, teachers have been bitching for years that kids don’t know their multiplication tables or their subtraction facts. The choice of textbook isn’t going to alter this truism one iota. A good set of flash cards and some at-home practice might improve that problem.
Mr. Lattin and Mrs. Ramirez are the good guys. Mr. Lattin wasn’t there. That kept him out of trouble. Mrs. Ramirez supported the staff that had been tasked with a monumental job. She didn’t say one thing and do another. The others need to step up to the plate and be ready to do their own text book selection. I doubt that any teachers in any other subjects are going to be willing to put the time in like the math department did. The math department was slapped in the face.
Mrs. Satterwhite, if you are going to cut your eyes at your buddies for their approval, best to do it when the camera isn’t on you. Mr. Trenum, save the textbook grandstanding for another day. You failed to adequately explain to the audience what was wrong with the textbook selection that won 65 to 16. Was it just that the staff supported one book and you all chose the opposite? That’s what it looked like.
Middle School and elementary school have totally different curriculum needs. Has there ever been a time when there was one adoption of a text book series K-8? I don’t think so. Curriculum compression was discussed. Special text books were selected to cover 3 years of math in 2 years so that advanced students could take all 3 years of middle school math in 2 years and add algebra as their 8th grade math course. The school board managed to screw that up also. Why? They don’t really understand the math curriculum and what has to be accomplished.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Leave the curriculum implementation to the experts–you know, those people who are trained to do a job and who we, the taxpayers, pay the big bucks to for their level of expertise. The school board has condemned the children of Prince William County to 6 years of a really sucky math book that doesn’t match the curriculum. Those people you didn’t trust, the math teachers, will once again have to gather materials from a variety of sources to be able to teach the objectives to the children. It would have been so easy to just adopt a textbook that was the correct resource for the job.
Moon-Howler
I am going out on another limb and say that is the kid(described in the above paragraph) who needs the online support that our recent middle class school board turned up its middle class nose at.
A lot of families who don’t have the time or the educational background get their kids a computer. When I was growing up, many similar parents all bought their kids encyclopedias. They did it to make up for what they couldn’t give them. It was a material sign that they cared. That replacement nowadays is a computer.
Kids who who care and who don’t have a computer will go to the library either at school or public and that significant online help might be a lifeline for those kids.
The PWC math staff has to look at all kids when making decisions. I was blown away to see how little regard was paid to the online support. Gosh, that has been around almost 2 decades and is very much needed.
I don’t know here. I am standing by the math staff. Remember, I have not taken a side on MI. I don’t see it as an issue since it is being phased out. What I see as an issue is that the school board, other than Mr. Lattin and Mrs. Ramirez, failed to show leadership. A couple of them threw down a trump card and thus smacked the math staff and the super in the face. Then the chickens joined in to peck at them.
So we have a couple with a political agenda which is sounding more and more like math from the 50s and a bunch of chickens to make sure the time travel gets done. Its going to be a long 4 years for some folks. I am glad my kids are grown. I pity the gkids who have to go through the system though, especially in middle school.
Maybe the one will stay in the City. It might be a compelling reason to look for a house there.
Therein lies the problem. The VA SOLs, in my opinion, are remedial, and teaching to them as we do in PWC right now will not prepare our children for higher level mathematics. We’re already seeing that with Investigations, which is supposedly sufficient to meet the SOL competency targets but has so poorly prepared our children for Middle school math that the MS teachers are having to teach basic skills the children should have developed in elementary school.
Just as an example, Investigations doesn’t teach the standard algorithms. It actually states in its teacher materials that the standard algorithms are dangerous. Same with fact mastery.
Which is well and good until your child hits middle school where fact mastery and mastery of the standard algorithms is assumed. Children don’t learn what they haven’t been taught, and if they haven’t been taught to add, subtract, multiply, and divide and they’re expected to be able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, then they will be behind. Sure, they may have done just fine on the SOL exams, but if they can’t add, subtract, multiply, and divide quickly and accurately by the time thy hit middle school, then they are in a world of trouble.
Both Connects and enVisions assume students are taught the standard algorithms to mastery starting in 2nd grade. Hence the gaps.
What did the school board do that is illegal? They have the authority to override any recommendation the school division makes – like they just did with the budget. The Superintendent suggested a budget that wouldn’t give our teachers a raise for the next 3 – 5 years. The school board then ordered the Superintendent to come up with alternatives that would provide our teachers with a raise this year (I have no idea about next year or the next 5 years). In the budget markup they made further cuts to free up more money for our teachers. That’s the school board’s job.
It’s the same with textbooks. The division made a recommendation that would have continued the current program and extended it into middle school. The school board rejected the committee’s first choice and went with their second choice. The committee’s second choice across the board just happened to be the same program from kindergarten to grade 8.
Please forgive the multiple posts. I’m trying to do smaller posts.
Per MH – “What do you mean by rigorous and how rigorous should a regular (not extended) text book be? I would think that it should be able to be read by most of the students which would include most sped and ESOL or whatever the term of the week is for limited English speakers. I kept hearing ‘rigorous’ and no one ever says what they mean. Difficulty of problems, number of word problems, number of problems, difficulty of concepts all might make a person say ‘rigorous.’”.
It’s what was in the teacher comments. The teachers said enVisions and Big Ideas were less rigorous.
From my review of the materials, I agree. Here’s an example. In 5th grade students study perimeter, area, again, and volume. enVisions demonstrates how the formulas work with unit blocks and squares and provides the formulas for area and volume and lots of real world examples. It certainly hits the mark the SOLs establish.
Connects doesn’t give the formulas for several lessons. It has the kids complete a chart listing the length and width, area, height, and volume of the rectangles from unit blocks (count of the number of unit block in the length, width, height, area, and volume). It then asks the kids to look at the numbers for length, width, area, height, and volume to see if they notice any sort of relationship between the numbers (and the numbers are within fact families so the relationship jumps out at you). It then has them write what they noticed as a formula, using l for length, w for width… and suggests that they use numbers from the handful of examples they provided to “prove” their formulas. Then it does a bunch of examples to practice, and even does squares and has them note the differences between squares and rectangles (the area of a square would be L squared, so if you were given the area of a square as 16, you could figure out the length and width).
At the very end Connects asks the kids if you double the length and width, do you double the volume, reminds them to use numbers to check their answer, and then asks them why.
How is this more rigorous when the knowledge is obtained and the lessons are similar? With enVisons the kids learn the core content and certainly meet the SOLs. But with Connects they go further. They learn the importance of a proof – which won’t matter much until they hit Algebra and Geometry, but it gets them in the habit of proving their answers before they provide them, and has them using some very preliminary Algebra. And that’s in the core materials – not the extended or advanced materials.
As to SPED and ELL students, Connects materials for SPED and ELL learners were noted as one of its strengths on the evaluation forms.
@Kim, No wonder the teachers I talked to were howling. Proof work? They aren’t even doing that in geometry much. It sounds a little too rigorous for the regular class if that is expected all the time. What’s wrong with being able to cover the objectives? The SOL test is getting tougher next year.
I go back to the teachers knowing what they want to use. 65 to 15 or 16 speaks volumes to me. I suppose I am just one of those people who can’t see picking texts out for someone else not in the field. Can you understand why there are a bunch of people who really resent that?
These weren’t the people you were even quarreling with. These are the people who are in there doing the grunt work down in the trenches–the people who are the experts. They just had 2 or 3 people who don’t teach math pick a text book out for them rather than their peers who were their represntatives.
No doing so well with the smaller posts thing. 🙁
per MH “The bottom line is, if the textbook isn’t the right resource to use, the teachers will simply leave it on the shelf and spend your hard earned tax dollars running off worksheet after worksheet of problems that best help them give students practice with the objective being taught. That is the reality. ”
That’s reality with any textbook or instructional program. I suspect one of the reasons our 3rd grade pass rates are back up to pre-MI days now is because the school board directed the division to allow teachers to use whatever resources they wanted in their classrooms. I know many teachers who tossed MI aside and went back to using the old books when that directive came out.
Per MH – “Not all students enrolled in extended 6th or 7th math will take Algebra. Some will need more time. If they go to Algebra before they are ready (usually having nothing to do with prior instruction but actual math maturity) it is generally to the detriment of that student. So what to do with him or her? That student will take Pre Algebra. I hope that kid won’t be repeating the same book he or she used in 7th grade extended. That would be too bad. It’s an ego thing.”
I’m not sure what you’re talking about here. At the MS level we have the regular classes that are supposed to meet SOL targets for competency for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades in those grades; we have the extended classes that compress the SOL targets for competency for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades into 6th and 7th grades so that the kids can take Algebra in 8th grade and calculus in 12th grade, and; we have the advanced classes that compress the SOL targets for competency for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades into 6th grade so that the kids can take Algebra in 7th grade and Geometry in 8th grade.
The board didn’t specify an order that they texts needed to be used in, but I’d assume the regular 6th grade classes would use Connects Course 1, the regular 7th grade classes would use Connects Course 2, and the regular 8th grade classes would use either the Pre-Algebra text or Connects Course 3. I’d assume the extended 6th grade classes would use Connects Course 1 & 2 and the extended 7th grade classes would use Connects Course 2 & 3 or Connects Course 2 and the Pre-Algebra text. I’d assume the advanced 6th grade classes would use some mix of Connects 1, 2, and 3 and the Pre-Algebra text.
We expect the same level of competency from our regular, extended, and advanced students – we just expect our extended and advanced students to reach that level of competency before the SOL grade level targets mandate it. Why would we have two different expectations of competency for the different tracks? Why would allow the kids in the regular track to be taught to lower level of understanding and competency than the kids in the extended track?
Kim, I am not doing a bit better at short. It isnt as late so I do better with reading this time of day.
I am just not comfortable with the word compressed. My problem, not yours. Teach more faster…is there a word for that? Usually the courses in extended are not only more faster but also have greater depth. It would be nice if the teachers had the materials. The teachers I talked to were disappointed and felt they have put in for the best materials to get across the objectives. I feel they should know what their own needs are.
Who is ‘we?’ I am curious who is saying that? I feel confident that no one is telling Mr. Drake the math teacher to hold back Sally Smith because the objectives only go up to knowing the square root of 625. Teachers take capable kids as far as they can.
All students are taught the objectives. The breadth and depth of extended classes are different. The SOL objectives are core material. Students are not limited to just core material. A good teacher who can differentiate instruction will take a class with a high degree of success and skill and aptitude as far as he or she can take them.
per MH “The needs of the 6th grade curriculum are different than that of Pre-Algebra and the extended classes are even more unique.”
Connects course 1 = 6th Grade SOLs
Connects course 2 = 7th grade SOLs
Connects course 3 & Pre-Algebra text = 8th grade SOLs
Per MH = “Those teachers serving on those committees know what is needed for those courses at the grade level they teach.”
Those teachers also said that the only reason they wanted Big Ideas is because of the gaps between the elementary and ms curricula. Using the same text series that was designed to be used from K – 8th grade will eliminate those gaps.
Per MH – “The School Board needs to lead. They failed to do so. Perhaps Mrs. Satterwhite will learn that as she becomes more experienced since she was first out of the gate fulfilling her campaign promises.”
To me leading means recognizing when things aren’t working and taking steps to rectify that. The school board did that when they changed the direction the math department was leading us.
Mrs Satterwhite was open and honest about her opinions on the direction the math department was leading the school division in her campaign. She never mislead anyone. That she and Mr Trenum would vote to change directions shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Per MH = “The direct intervention was heavy handed and signaled to everyone in Prince William County a vote of no confidence in the math department, whether that was the intention or not. ”
I’m not sure if that was the intention or not, but in my opinion, the math department deserved a vote of no confidence a long time ago.
I cannot image all the teachers said that. I would have to question their numbers. Why did they vote the way they did only to say they really liked something else better? Do I have to FOIA the group and ask them how they voted and why? What would they tell me?
I give the school board with the exception of Mrs. Ramirez and Mr. Lattin a vote of no confidence.
You and your group obviously feel you are in a position to dictate what is best for the entire county. I do not. I observed the goings on in the Gainesville District during campaign season. But you are correct, Mrs. Satterwhite was very open that she was running to block bust MI. I thought that it was no longer an issue. She appeared at enough Republican affairs. I have never quite understood where that fine line is drawn not running for as a particular party member.
Kim, I think you have tried to defend your friend. However, the more that is said, the more I feel most of the school board acted improperly. If they continue to show the same heavy-handedness, it will not fair well for them or Prince William County Schools. Good people won’t hang around to get railroaded. You also might want to rethink the idea of having people who are push-overs. You all tried to push around people who are deeply committed to educating all the children, not just the children in the wealthier districts. For that, I salute those who did what they felt best for all the children, even those whose parents might not have the time or the capacity to get involved with their math or any other subject.
The Republicans in Gainesville have never been real smart about not pissing off people who buy ink by the barrel. That was obvious during the last election cycle.
You and I will not agree on this issue. I am just glad that I don’t have to deal with it. It was quite a railroad job from start to finish.
@Moon-howler
Your opinion and that’s fine for you. I feel the board finally got a grip on the situation.
Mr Lattin was never anything but condesending to us and Ms Ramirez did not know about the widening achievment gap in her district because she believed the guff she was spoon fed rather than doing her own research. Sad if they are the best in your opinion.
The election showed what the public thought of Mr Richardsons’ respect for his constituants. Mr Lattin ran unopposed.
I expect the general public didn’t hear WHY Mr.Richardson said what he said.
Neither you or Kim have provided me with the years or the grade levels these pronouncements.
What exactly do you mean about widening achievement gap? How do you know that there is correlation between minority test scores and MI?
Frankly, I am not buying some of the unverified guff I hear now.
You seem to think looking at a set of SOL test scores from one year tells an entire story. I can assure you it does not.
Again, I don’t really care one way or the other about MI. I care about the disrespect shown the teachers of Prince William County. I care about the strong arming and I care about the arrogance. That just buys you a a spotlight. Its never smart to capture the attention of a person who buys their ink by the barrel.
I am about ready to close comments off on this thread.
Those of us discussing this issue will not ever agree. One thing I want to make very clear. I do not think that Alyson Sattewhite or Gil Trenum are bad people. In fact, I know that Mr. Trenum is a good person. While I don’t know him personally, several of my close friends do and if they think he is a good person, and that’s good enough for me.
We can disagree strongly about matters of public policy. I have and will continue to do so. I hope I have been kinder in the long run, to the school board than some folks were about the central math department and math teachers in general.
I believe Mrs. Sattewhite is a good person and I will be the first person to say she said where she was coming from, from the beginning. Her position is on her candidate’s website. I strongly disagree with her about who should be chosing textbooks, but, I expect she and I will agree on other issues in the future.
I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Don Richardson for his 10 years of service. I believe he is to be saluted for defending the staff, from the Superintendant to the teachers, on several occassions and insisting that they be treated with dignity.
If anyone has further comments, feel free to post them in the open thread.
Not geometric proofs – proving their work (which is what a geometric proof is, but at a much higher level). The lesson is very 5th grader appropriate. It has them note what they think the relationship is (and the examples it has them record are easy, like length of 2 squares, width of 4 squares, and area of 8 squares so the relationship between length and width and area jumps out at you). Then it has them prove their formula using the next three examples it provides. So if a kid had length plus width = area, he / she would see that length plus width doesn’t equal area. And if a kid has length times width equals area, they’d see that their formula actually works effectively.
It gets them into the habit of taking a step back from their gut responses and applying their theory to actual examples to see if it is or is not true. It gets them into the habit of thinking about their answers before providing them.
Of course, if they don’t know what 2 x 4 is, they won’t get it at all. And if they don’t what 2 x 4 is in 5th grade, then they’re very behind.
Both program do cover the SOL objectives. But Connects, in my opinion, went deeper and helped kids develop ways of thinking that will help them in higher level mathematics. They’ll be familiar with the idea of thinking about and proving their theories and applying the knowledge they’ve acquired to scenarios they hadn’t imagined or seen in school.
That’s something the revised SOL exam promises to do.
And the newer, harder SOL exam will be administered this Spring. The VA DOE is projecting pass rates will be in the 70% range, or lower. Fauquier just took the new SOL and their pass rates tanked.
Just meeting the SOL targets isn’t enough. We see that with our kids now, where our teachers report that 3rd graders jut don’t get subtraction or 5th graders don’t know their multiplication and division facts, or middle school students can’t add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and accurately – in a division where 90% + of our kids are passing the SOL exams.
We see it in our SAT scores, which are almost 150 points below Fairfax and Loudoun, despite SOL pass rates that are on par with Fairfax and Loudoun. Clearly teaching just to the SOLs, like we’ve been doing and are doing, isn’t enough.
First, you’re looking at the sticky vote tallies, which were taken after the sales demos and not the evaluations. The evaluations tell a different story.
And the teacher’s I’ve spoken with who were on the committee aren’t offended at all. They’re fine with the decision to got with Connects.
I suspect a teachers who aren’t accustomed to being challenged are offended. But if they didn’t want to be challenged then they should have ensured that the justification for selecting Big Ideas and enVisions actually justified the decision. Even the math head admitted that she couldn’t really say why one text was chosen over the other. If you want to make sure your recommendation isn’t questioned or reversed, especially knowing the opinions of the school board members on the current instructional program, you ought to make your recommendation strong enough to stand on its own.
@kim
The teachers who are offended are not just math teachers. They are people who have watched the process become ‘tainted’ for lack of a better word. Do you think a hostile take over goes over a bit better with English, social studies or science teachers? Today the math department, tomorrow other subjects.
I am still trying to figure out who the WE is that you are referring to. Kim, I doubt seriously that teachers would be dumb enough to tell you how they really feel since I suspect you are a conduit to the new Powers that Be. I expect your teacher buds are those who disliked MI.
I expect the ‘math head’ probably didn’t buzz around and network over it and chose not to speak for others. One doesn’t get to be a ‘math head’ by showing all one’s cards.
As I have said, I know you are trying to help out your buds but you aren’t helping to change my mind. My point is and always has been that those hired as professionals ought to be selecting the resources and tools to use.
If I contract someone to build a house for me, I am going going to go out and start telling them which nail guns to by. They are being hired to do a job because of their level of expertise.
It is irregular and unorthodox for the school board to select textbooks, in defiance of what the certified professionals have selected to do the job. You have written a great deal of educational justification and researched it. However, it’s all irrelevant to the point, much like a grad student writing a thesis. Until that grad student gets into the classroom and deals with all aspects of the curriculum, all them purdy words are just that…purdy words.
What ‘proving your work’ means to one person might mean something different to someone else. Geometry de-emphasizes the heavy reliance on 2 column proofs. In fact, there is very little proof work involved compared to 15 years ago. Changing times and changing needs.
I expect that probably the biggest shock of all was learning that a local blogger had had the Wednesday night massacre dropped on her desk and that those who thought they had pulled off a fast one now had a helicopter spot light on what happened. All had been quiet. Now its not.
What deals have been cut? Stay tuned for the next installment. It really is amazing what people will do in this county to remove that which they feel is standing in their way.
I am going to keep watching.
Mr. Howler just came in a while ago and said he had been thinking about this situation. He is nto blog oriented at all. He said it seems to him that it is like Congress going on and replacing all the generals on the battlefield. So there is Congress out there on the battlefield thinking that because they had read a book or two on strategy, they were the experts now. So all the regular officers were busted back to buck private and Congress is out there calling all the shots, saying that some of their constituents didn’t like the way things were going and they wanted a different out come to the battle.
That doesn’t seem like any way to win a war to me.