New math curriculum — so far, so good

By Geoff Pursinger

The Times, Oct 15, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (9 Reader comments)

The dust appears to have settled in Tigard-Tualatin schools after last year’s battle about the best way to teach math. Since that time, the school district has changed their curriculum to focus more on traditional teaching methods and use reformist math as a supplement. Things are off to a good start, according to school officials.

“It’s going really well, but it’s still a lot of work,” said Kristy Stenberg, a math teacher at Tigard High School. “Now we have two curriculums and can take the best of each. How can you go wrong with that?”

“Wrong” is just what many parents thought about last year’s math curriculum. When district math classes began teaching the more reformist College Preparatory Mathematics curriculum to its sixth- through tenth-grade classrooms, many parents grew upset. Some claimed that the new curriculum lacked rigor, “dumbed down” the math, and relied too heavily on group work.

A group of concerned parents, calling themselves Parents for Math Choice, began a campaign to end the controversial curriculum. They met with school administrators and, in the end, the district voted to use a more traditional Holt McDougal textbook — and use the less-conventional College Preparatory Math curriculum as a supplement.

The new curriculum uses a more traditional model, but retains the CPM model as a supplement. It took affect at the start of the 2009-2010 school year.

Stenberg said that this is the first time she has ever seen a district-wide hybridization of curriculums in 30 years of teaching.

“In truth, with any curriculum you have to take the best out of it and then go out hunting for something to mix it with,” she said. “This way we don’t have to hunt as far.”

Mix of old and new

The new hybrid curriculum is meant to take the best aspects of both CPM and Holt McDougal and create a method that both parents and teachers approve of.

According to Stenberg, the merging of the two programs into one perfect curriculum just takes time.

“You’re essentially inventing something new,” she said. “You have to be very familiar with both the curriculums in order to pick out the best parts. It’s just a process. This year we’ll be good, next year we’ll be better.”

While many teachers within the district initially hated to see CPM mixed with traditional lesson plans, Hazelbrook Middle School teacher Karen Mapes said that now that educators have worked with the new plan, most everyone seems happy with the situation.

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