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Math, Town by Town
From Alsip to Zion with a hundred other towns in between,
this is the place for math news from your community!
 | links to districts' official websites |
 | links to districts' official board policy manuals |
 | link to Union local |
"Before my son started school, I began researching education.
I knew if they couldn't get the math right, they probably wouldn't get anything else right."
-- a parent
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Tell us what's happening in YOUR district!
Readers: We depend on YOU for updates and corrections!
Tell us what's happening in your town, school district, or school ...
Thank you for any corrections and updates. Your help makes this a better information service
for parents all over the area. Thanks!
CITY OF CHICAGO
CPS Conventional K-8 Schools
- We are aware of the following CPS schools which are said to use the excellent
Saxon Math program:
-
Abbott School
- De Diego Community Academy, 1313 N Claremont Ave.
-
Marcus Garvey
-
Peck Elementary
-
McAuliffe Elementary
-
Falconer Elementary: From the Christian Science Monitor, May 30, 2000:
Test scores at Falconer Elementary School in Chicago ...went up so
dramatically that the central office suspected its students were cheating.
Students retook the test and scored at the same level. (76.9 percent of its
third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders scored at or above national norms on the
Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Prior to the use of Saxon only about a third scored
at that level.)
- Please let us know of any others!
- The CPS has created something called the
"Chicago Math and Science Initiative" with a goal
of "assuring that high-quality, standards-based mathematics
and science instruction is available to every student
in every CPS school."
The
website for this CMSI gives the bad news:
The mathematics instructional materials being implemented in CMSI Intensive Support schools are:
Primary Grades Mathematics: Math Trailblazers
and Everyday Mathematics
Middle Grades Mathematics: Connected Mathematics
and MathThematics
According to the
CMSI website as of October 2006, here is a list of which of these fuzzy math
programs are used in which schools:
K-6 schools using
Everyday Math
|
Participating Schools:
Abbott
Addams
Aldridge
Alex Haley Acad
Altgeld
Andersen Comm Acad
Attucks
Audubon
Avalon Park
Banneker
Barry
Barton
Beaubien
Beidler
Belding
Bethune
Black Magnet
Blaine
Bond
Brentano
Brown
Buckingham Sp Ed
Burke
Burnham Acad
Caldwell
Cameron
Canty
Cardenas
Carpenter
Carter
Casals Pablo
Castellanos
Cather
Chase
Chopin
Christopher
Claremont Academy
Cleveland
Clinton
Coles
Coonley
Cooper
Copernicus
Corkery
Crown Comm Acad
Cuffe
Cullen
Davis
De Priest
Delano
Deneen
Dever
Dewey
Disney Magnet
Dodge
DuBois
Dulles
Dumas
Durkin Park School
Dvorak Acad
Ebinger
Edison
Edwards
Ellington
Ericson
Esmond
Everett
Fairfield Academy
Faraday
Fermi
Fiske
Foundations
Franklin Magnet
Frazier Prep Acad
Fuller
Funston
Gale Comm Acad
Gary
Gillespie
Goldblatt
Goudy
Graham
Gray
Gregory
Gresham
Gunsaulus Academy
Hamline
Harte
Harvard
Hay Comm Acad
Hedges
Hefferan
Henderson
Henson
Herbert
Heroes Academic
Hinton
Howe
Hughes L
Inter-American
Irving
Jackson Mahalia
Jahn
Jamieson
Jensen Schola Acad
Johns Academy
Johnson
Joplin
Jordan School
Key
King
Kinzie School
Kozminski Com Acad
LaSalle Lang Acad
Lafayette
Lathrop Academy
Lavizzo Elementary
Lawndale Comm Acad
Lawrence
Lincoln
Madison
Manierre
Marconi Comm Acad
Mason
May Comm Acad
Mayer
McAuliffe
McCormick
McKinley Park Schl
Medill Elementary
Melody
Metcalfe Comm Acad
Mireles
Mollison
Monroe
Moos
Morrill
Morton Career Acad
Murphy
Murray Lang Acad
Natl Tchrs Acad
New Field School
Newberry Magnet
Nicholson
North River School
Norwood Park
O'Toole
Ogden
Oglesby
Onahan
Ortiz De Dominguez
Otis
Paderewski
Park Manor
Parker Comm Acad
Parkside Comm Acad
Peterson
Pilsen Comm Acad
Plamondon
Powell
Price
Pritzker
Randolph Elementar
Ravenswood
Ray
Reavis
Reed
Revere
Robinson
Roque de Duprey
Ross
Ruggles
Ryder
Ryerson
Sabin Magnet
Salazar Bil Ed Ctr
Schiller
Schneider
Sexton A O
Sherman
Sherwood
Shoesmith
Shoop
Smith
Smyth
Songhai
South Chicago Comm
Spencer
Stagg
Stockton
Swift
Talcott
Talman School
Tarkington Schl
Taylor
Telpochcalli
Thorp O A Acad
Till Academy
Tilton
Tonti
Turner-Drew Lang
Von Humboldt
Wadsworth
Warren
Washington H
Webster
Wells Prep
West Pullman
Westcott
Whistler
White
Woods Academy
Yale
Yates
Young
Zapata Academy
Schools DROPPED from the list of schools using
Everyday Math since previous listing:
Armstrong
Ashe
Barnard
Bass
Belmont-Cragin
Bradwell
Bright
Carver
Chicago Acad
Cook
Curtis
Fernwood
Goodlow Magnet
Hendricks
Kohn
Locke
Milton-Brunson
Morgan
Morse
Mt Vernon
Namaste Charter
Neil
North Kenwood Charter
Prescott
Pullman
Walsh
Woodlawn Comm
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K-5 schools using
Math Trailblazers
|
Agassiz
Ariel Comm
Armour
Avondale
Beethoven
Bontemps
Boone
Bouchet Academy
Brownell
Burley
Burr
Calhoun North
Chalmers
Clark G R
Columbia Explorers
Daley Acad
De Diego Comm Acad
Dett
Doolittle East
Drake
Earle
Emmet
Field
Fulton
Galileo Scholastic
Goethe
Greene
Guggenheim
H B STOWE
Haines
Hanson Park
Hawthorne Acad
Hayt
Hearst
Herzl
Holmes
Hurley
Jenner
Jungman
Kanoon Magnet
Kellman Corp Comm
Kershaw
Lara Academy
Lewis
Libby
Linne
Lionel Hampton
Little Village
Lloyd
Lovett
Lowell
Lozano Bilingual
Mann
Marquette
Mays Acad
McCorkle
McKay
Nash
Nettelhorst
New Sullivan
Nixon
Nobel
O'Keeffe
Orozco Academy
Overton
Parkman
Peabody
Pershing Magnet
Pershing West
Piccolo Elementary
Pope
Princeton A C
Pulaski Academy
Saucedo Schol Acad
Scammon
Sheridan Magnet
South Loop
Stewart
Sumner
Tanner
Trumbull
Walsh
Waters
Wentworth
West Park Academy
Whitney
Williams Multiplex
Schools DROPPED from the list of schools using
Math Trailblazers since previous listing:
Carnegie
De La Cruz
Dodge
Drummond
Galapagos Charter (which has adopted Singapore Math instead!!!)
Gillespie
Gladstone
Graham
Herbert
Howe
KIPP Ascend Charter
Legacy Charter
Marconi
Pilsen
Price
Ward Laura
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Grade 6-8 schools using
Connected Mathematics Project (CMP)
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Participating Schools:
Agassiz
Alcott
Ames School
Andersen Comm Acad
Armour
Attucks
Bass
Beethoven
Belding
Black Magnet
Blaine
Bond
Boone
Bouchet Academy
Bradwell
Brownell
Burley
Cameron
Canter Middle
Casals Pablo
Castellanos
Chalmers
Chopin
Christopher
Claremont Academy
Clinton
Coles
Columbia Explorers
Courtenay
Daley Acad
Davis
Delano
Dett
Dever
Dodge
Drake
Edison
Edwards
Fairfield Academy
Field
Fiske
Franklin Magnet
Fuller
Gale Comm Acad
Goethe
Graham
Gray
Green Wendell
H B STOWE
Haines
Hanson Park
Hay Comm Acad
Healy
Hearst
Hendricks Comm Aca
Heroes Academic
Inter-American
Jackson Acad
Jackson Mahalia
Jamieson
Johns Academy
Kanoon Magnet
Kellman Corp Comm
Lafayette
Lavizzo Elementary
Linne
Little Village
Lowell
Madero Middle
Marquette
Marsh
McAuliffe
McCorkle
McKinley Park Schl
Monroe
Montefiore Special
Moos
Mozart
Nash
New Sullivan
Nicholson
Nixon
North River School
Northwest Middle
O'Keeffe
Onahan
Paderewski
Park Manor
Peabody
Peirce
Perez
Peterson
Poe Classical
Prescott
Reed
Roque de Duprey
Saucedo Schol Acad
Scammon
Schiller
Schmid
Sherman
Sherwood
Shoesmith
Smyth
Songhai
Stewart
Stockton
Talcott
Tarkington Schl
Telpochcalli
Thorp O A Acad
Trumbull
Waters
Whitney
Williams Middle
Yates
Schools DROPPED from the list of schools using
Connected Mathematics Project since previous listing:
Audubon
Barnard
Bright
Carnegie
Chase
Cuffe
Dunne
Fort Dearborn
Foundations
Hawthorne Acad
Hefferan
Lawndale Comm Acad
Marconi Comm Acad
Mayer
Melody
Morgan
Mt Vernon
Orozco Academy
Pasteur
Perspectives Charter
Pickard
Sayre Lang Acad
South Loop
Tonti Br
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Grade 6-8 schools using
MathThematics
|
Participating Schools:
Abbott
Alex Haley Acad
Altgeld
Ariel Comm
Ashe
Avalon Park
Banneker
Barton
Beidler
Bethune
Bontemps
Brentano
Brown
Burnham Acad
Burroughs
CATALYST ELEM
Caldwell
Calhoun North
Carnegie
Carroll
Carter
Cather
Chavez
Clark Acad Prep
Crown Comm Acad
Cullen
Davis
De La Cruz
Deneen
Dewey
Doolittle East
DuBois
Dulles
Dumas
Durkin Park School
Dvorak Acad
Earle
Emmet
Ericson
Evergreen Acad
Evers
Faraday
Fermi
Fulton
Galileo Scholastic
Gary
Gillespie
Goldblatt
Goodlow Magnet
Gregory
Guggenheim
Hamline
Harvard
Hayt
Hedges
Hefferan
Henderson
Henson
Herbert
Herzl
Hinton
Holmes
Howe
Hurley
Jahn
Jenner
Jensen Schola Acad
Johnson
Joplin
Jordan School
Jungman
Kershaw
King
Lara Academy
Lathrop Academy
Lawrence
Lewis
Libby
Lionel Hampton
Logandale Middle
Lovett
Lozano Bilingual
Madison
Manierre
Mann
Marconi Comm Acad
Mason
May Comm Acad
Mays Acad
McClellan
McKay
Metcalfe Comm Acad
Mireles
Mitchell
Mollison
Morrill
Morton Career Acad
Natl Tchrs Acad
Nettelhorst
Nia
Nobel
O'Toole
Oglesby
Overton
Parker Comm Acad
Parkman
Parkside Comm Acad
Pershing West
Piccolo Elementary
Powell
Price
Princeton A C
Pritzker
Pulaski Academy
Pullman
Randolph Elementar
Ravenswood
Ray
Reavis
Ross
Ruggles
Ryder
Ryerson
Sabin Magnet
Salazar Bil Ed Ctr
Sexton A O
Sherman
Smith
South Loop
Spencer
Stagg
Sumner
Swift
Talman School
Tanner
Taylor
Thorp J N
Till Academy
Tilton
Von Humboldt
Wadsworth
Walsh
Ward Laura
Warren
Wentworth
West Pullman
Westcott
Whistler
White
Woods Academy
Yale
Young
Schools DROPPED from the list of schools using
MathThematics since previous listing:
Aldridge
Anthony Br
Burke
Cleveland
Copernicus
Corkery
Daley Acad
De Priest
Ebinger
Gladstone
Higgins Comm Acad
Medill Elementary
Mt Greenwood
Pope
Reinberg
Sawyer
Scammon
Shoop
Williams Prep Med
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CPS Charter K-8 Schools
Read details about math and other programs in Chicago charter schools on our page about
schools in Chicago.
CPS High Schools
-
Directory of CPS High Schools
Hyman Rickover Naval Academy:
Rickover's math department chair Scott Fogel told us that the school uses
Saxon Math exclusively.
Northside College Preparatory High School:
Ugh! Northside takes your fondest hopes and dreams for your kids and then crushes them
with the dreadful Interactive Mathematics Program (IMP).
Corliss High School:
Algebra classes at Corliss burden teens with the appalling Interactive Mathematics Program (IMP).
Little Village Lawndale "Social Justice High School":
Dear Illinois taxpayers, your taxes are being used to pay for this school. So,
click here to see the curriculum page
(what they inscrutibly label as a "back mapping") for the Social Justice High School and prepare to have your jaw drop.
Displayed in the style of an educrat's block chart of curriculum standards, this page announced that indoctrinees, that is, students,
will be marinated in such educational "goals" as (copied verbatim!!!):
- Have an active love for self, culture, identity.
- Understand need for code switching (huh???)
- Recognize and challenge their own prejudices and societal stereotypes
- Make time to read for pleasure (listed as a goal for 11th grade)
- Read for pleasure (listed as a goal for 12th grade)
- Set a purpose for reading (listed as a goal for 12th grade)
- Understand mechanisms of power: name source of power in situations, name victims in situations
- Effectively deconstruct written text and visual media images for purpose, target audience, and technique (critical of social literacy)
- Have fluency in use of available institutions and resources: political structures, help/aid organizations public health facilities/environment/housing ...
- Get to know your community and it's [sic] history
- Work to form coalitions between you and other community leaders working to represent the array of cultures in the community
- Identify roles of power (oppressor/victim)
- Demonstrate knowledge of boundary lines, blocks, ward, key players
What does not seem to be of much importance at the "Social Justice High School" is knowing anything about using math.
Despite the very long
bullet list "back mapping" (???) of curriculum goals, including items such as "Identify roles of power (oppressor/victim)",
we could find only these two curriculum goals that had anything to do with math:
- Know how to balance check books and the basic workings of banks
- Understand how interests work [sic] and know how to budget.
Tell us more!
- We need more information on math in Chicago schools!
Please write to us if you have additional insights!
COOK COUNTY
District 15 - Palatine
D15 is the third-largest elementary school district in Illinois, with 13,000
pupils in kindergarten through 8th grade in all or parts of Arlington Heights,
Hoffman Estates, Inverness, Palatine, Rolling Meadows, South Barrington and
Schaumburg.
D15 does believe in truth-in-labelling,
warning parents right on the its website,
The Mathematics Curriculum in District 15 is aligned to the
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Standards ...
But our curiosity was raised by another item on the D15 website, which mentions
use of
Everyday Math and also a Houghton Miflin program,
but also SRA Math Explorations and Applications.
The SRA program has pretty good reviews from Mathematically Correct and others.
We asked about this, and we were told that the SRA program is used
to "provide ... students with additional problem based learning opportunities."
Hmm, not quite what we had hoped for.
Meanwhile, reading is another dubious area in District 15.
The "reading" page on the D15 website describes its early "word study" program as
"Concept/sight vocabulary development phonics/spelling
Cunningham Shanahan Gentry" (whew!). This is scary stuff!!!
"Cunningham" almost certainly refers to the uber-fuzzy methods espoused
by unrepentant Whole Language die-hard Patricia Cunningham. (For more, read here.)
The "Gentry" most associated with reading would be J. Richard Gentry. His book
Spel Is a Four-Letter Word views "good spelling" as "merely a convenience."
Writes Gentry, "There are some people like secretaries, who need to be accurate,
but usually even they can use a word processor with a good spelling check."
Confessing to being a bad speller himself, Gentry advises students to
"make an honest attempt to spell werds wright."
(Palatine parents, is that what you want for your kids?)
"Shanahan" is probably Timothy Shanahan of the University of Illinois at Chicago,
who is (or was) a board member of the Whole Language fan club known as
the "International Reading Association". For more on this group with
the deceivingly pleasant name,
read here.
What's a parent to do, when your school district goes off the deep end?
Well, do what so many others have done! If your school isn't teaching,
and you want to keep your kids there anyway (why???), then
tutoring is almost mandatory, as this article reports:
From the Chicago Tribune, September 24, 1997:
"What many schools do now with the
University of Chicago-based math
is cumulative; they touch on something, move on and the next time around they touch
on the same topic but at a higher level," said Patt Heise, who has 175 students
at her Kumon Center in Palatine.
"What I'm seeing is that this doesn't work. I have a lot of kids in 5th, 6th and
7th grades who can't add without a calculator. They don't have a number sense."
James Bregenzer, a freshman at Fremd High School in Palatine, was one of those
students. In 6th grade he was failing most of his courses. His mother, Candace,
found a Kumon tutoring center in the phone book. Last year, James made the honor
roll.
...
Marjorie James of Inverness said that her children "didn't master certain levels,
but they moved on anyway" to the next grade level. "They couldn't add or
subtract," she said.
She put her daughter, Liz, in a Kumon tutoring center, even though she already
was an honor-roll student at Sundling Junior High in Palatine.
- Also see:
District 21 - Wheeling
District apparently uses two fuzzy math programs, Everyday Math,
and Connected Math.
- District adopts Everyday Math, girds for battle:
Arlington Heights Post (May 28, 1998) reports, "School
Board President Arlen Gould said parents need to be well-informed
about changes in the math curriculum so that they understand
what and how their children are learning. 'Otherwise we're going
to have parents storming the Bastille like you've never seen
before,' he warned."
- The district imposed the dreaded
Connected Math curriculum
on its middle school students in 1999. According to the Daily
Herald (December 10, 1999), as a result of this action "a
rift has developed between some parents and Wheeling Township
elementary school officials".
- In 2007, the district "celebrated" ten years of condemning children to the notorious Everyday Math program.
- The district's webpage "proudly" talks about its teachers who ...
... have been involved in staff development
related to the School Improvement,
balanced reading instruction,
writing process,
University of Chicago Everyday Math,
the Connected Math Program,
assessment, middle schools,
multiple intelligences,
brain research,
differentiation,
technology,
problem based learning,
concept based curriculum, multiage classrooms, cooperative learning
and professional
portfolios ...
Whew! Descriptions like that make us think we should
provide links to real estate agents to make it easier for parents to get out.
District 23 - Prospect Heights
Uses the notorious Everyday Math program for K-5.
In May 2012, D23's board not only confirmed its commitment to Everyday Math,
but decided to buy the brand new Common Core
third edition of this dreadful program for K-5.
Funny thing, in the board minutes that reported this decision, the
cost of this nonsense wasn't mentioned.
According the district's posted "review cycle"
the awful math program will not be reconsidered until 2018-19, for implementation in 2019-2020!
District 25 - Arlington Heights
The Arlington Heights Post (Feb
19, 1998) reported, "The parents questioned whether the curriculum
Math Their Way was effective in teaching children basic
skills. Some parents said their children weren't memorizing math
tables or mastering addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division." The article mentions parents hiring tutors to
compensate for what their kids weren't getting in school.
District ignores parents, expands Chicago math: Arlington
Heights Post (Sept 3, 1998) reports, "The parents argue
that [Everyday Math] does not stress computational skills such
as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division."
The Arlington Heights Post had a lengthy report on Oct 15,
1998. Some excerpts:
Everyday Mathematics is the curriculum some parents love to
hate. ... some parents in Elementary School District 25 contend
that their kids aren't getting the basics. In a recent study
of the program done by a consultant hired by the district, nearly
30 percent of parents of third-, fourth- and fifth-graders, said
they were concerned their children were not learning basic computational
skills such as multiplication and division tables.
Some harshly criticized Everyday Math and said they were paying
math tutors to make up for what their children were not learning
in school. "It's just needlessly confusing," complained
Linda Nitch, who said her daughter is struggling in math. "It's
just too complicated for what they're trying to teach. It totally
messed up my daughter."
... John Underwood, who sends his children to a math tutoring
center, contends that the curriculum is experimental. ... "What
data can be shown that supports the math curriculum is worthwhile?"
Underwood asked. "The No. 1 reason I don't like Everyday Math
is it's unproven. It just floors me when I hear educators
who insist it works." Underwood, who has compiled a huge
binder of articles written on math education, objects to teachers
introducing a concept and going on before all or most students
have mastered it. Underwood called that a "chaotic approach."
What happens to parents who take an active interest in how schools
are changing their childrens math instruction? Here's a report
from the Chicago Tribune, October 4, 1998:
Betty Underwood has a math problem she can't solve. The Arlington Heights mother
has been critical of a new mathematics instructional program at her daughter's
elementary school but doesn't feel administrators have been doing anything about
her concerns. "We have some very savvy parents in this district, and they're not
going to just accept information the school hands out at face value. They're
going to get their own answers ... and that is perceived as criticism,"
Underwood said. "There is a clear line at school: `If you like what we're doing,
the door is always open. But if you don't, then it's your problem.'" ...
"The anger really centers around this (paradox)," said Elaine K. McEwan, a former
west suburban teacher, principal and assistant superintendent. "Parents say, `You
like me when I'm baking cupcakes for the Christmas party or buying $50 worth of
wrapping paper, but not when I come to talk about something more substantive.'
Parents are increasingly concerned that their kids are learning reading, writing
and math skills too late (if at all) and are getting discouraged too early. ...
"Whether you live in an urban neighborhood or an affluent suburb the perception
is that when parents ask tough questions, educators immediately circle the
wagons, stonewall, or throw educational jargon at you," said McEwan ...
Nothing illuminates the conflict better than "Math Wars," currently raging in a
number of communities besides Arlington Heights, including St. Charles, Glenview,
Evanston and Libertyville.
Underwood, a manager for a $60 million retail firm before becoming a stay-at-home
Mom, was incensed to learn her district was adopting the math program "hot off
the presses." "We're not just the cookie bakers anymore ... but if you raise questions, you
get analogies that are designed to make parents feel stupid," she said.
The Chicago math program still continues to provoke controversy.
In its issue of April 22, 1999, the Arlington Heights Post reports
that the "Everyday Mathematics curriculum [is still] controversial
among parents. In particular, parents have objected to the nontraditional
teaching methods and the use of calculators in the classroom."
To help sell parents on the dubious practices of this program,
the distrcit held an information night that attracted some 170
parents. According to the newspaper report, parents were treated
to demonstrations of some of the odd algorithms thrown at kids
in the program. There is no mention of whether parents were given
any evidence that the program has ever been shown to produce
any benefits compared to programs that emphasize mastery. The
paper quotes one teacher saying that as a child she did not enjoy
math, but now she "wants children to think of math as something
that is fun. ... We call it mathing." Oh, good.
The Arlington Heights fuzzy math controversy continued, as
reported by the Chicago Tribune, "New-New Math Causes some Division"
by Lisa Black, April 13, 2000. Here is an excerpt:
Betty Underwood of Arlington Heights was PTA president of her daughter's
elementary school when she was horrified to observe math students
leapfrogging around the room. The pupils measured how far their classmates
leapt and wrote down the mean and averages.
"The cutting edge is not necessarily the place to be in education," said
Underwood, who pays $150 each month to enroll her children in a private
math program that focuses on drill exercises."
District 26 - Mt. Prospect / River Trails
Here's another district that has succumbed to fuzzy math by
adopting the chatty Math Trailblazers program, spending
$144,000 in tax dollars of residents to impose this on their
kids. The program was installed in the 2000-2001 year, with "high
praise" from the vendor of this program (well, duh!)
Also see:
Local citizens' group:
Unofficial referendum fact sheets.
District 27 - Northbrook
We don't know for sure what Northbrook uses, but there are a few references to the dreaded
Everyday Math on the D27 website.
Can anyone tell us about math in Northbrook D27?
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 28 - Northbrook
Words fail in describing a district that proclaims on the main page of its website
that its mission is to provide a "caring enviroment [sic] where all children benifit [sic] from
a commitment to excellence."
In 2000, the school district conducted a review of math curricula,
focusing on such standard fuzzy fare as Everyday Math
and Math Trailblazers.
During the review process, committee
members visited district officials in Wilmette, which had recently
adopted the Trailblazers program
(and, two years later, was in a panic over
declining scores on math tests and drastic reductions in the
number of advanced math placements).
In the end, it appears that Northbrook 28 adopted
Math Trailblazers.
(And not long after that, the Wilmette district, which the Northbrook committee visited,
decided to dump Math Trailblazers!)
Fortunately, there are a number of Kumon, Score, Huntington
and other after-school programs in the area that will let
parents purchase real math instruction for their children.
District 29 - Sunset Ridge
Sunset Ridge uses the notorious Everyday Math in Kindergarten through sixth grade.
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm School Perceptions, LLC, for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about School Perceptions, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 30 - Glenview/Northbrook
What do you do when you find that a math program has grievous
omissions? Well, if it's the oh-so-trendy Everyday Math,
you retain it anyway, but then you supplement it with another
trendy program. District 30 has used Everyday Math since
about 1994. (In the process, business in math workbooks has boomed
at the Learning Post store on Waukegan and a variety of after-school
tutoring centers have opened up nearby, as parents scramble to
teach their kids the math they no longer get in school.) But
now (according to the Glenview Announcements of Nov. 18, 1999)
the district has added a program called "Exemplars"
(from the "First in the World" consortium that several
other districts have pulled out of), in theory to add at least
some emphasis on basic math skills. We're looking forward to
hearing more about what "Exemplars" is all about.
In October 2002, we received this message from a mother in Glenview:
I thought it was just my husband and I that thought the Chicago
Everyday Mathematics stunk. [Our daughter] didn't learn anything
very well. ... My husband and I had her tested and the real
scores indicated that she didn't have any mastery or quickness
she was going to need to succeed... We have now
enrolled her at our local tutoring center and her mastery and
quickness have gotten better in a hurry. Thanks for bringing
important information out for us parents.
In January 2006, the Northbrook Star quoted the D30 school board president,
"the Board will be monitoring ... the implementation of the revisions to the mathematics curriculum."
We asked D30 about this, and guess what? They honchos are just so darn happy with
sticking the kids with Everyday Math that
they will be making no major changes, despite parent concerns.
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm School Perceptions, LLC, for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about School Perceptions, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 31 - West Northfield
Chicago math had been adopted, over objection and with difficulty:
"West Northfield Elementary District ... felt heat when
it adopted [Everyday Math]. Pioneer Press reported, "'It
didn't get implemented without some pain and suffering,' Superintendent
Paul Kimmelman said."
But now, a parent reports that the district has dropped
the Chicago math program
in favor of Harcourt Brace (grades 1-5) and
McDougal-Littell (grades 6-8) starting with the 2002-2003 school year.
This parent adds,
Changing math programs was in response to sustained, negative community
input regarding student achievement in math. District 31 test scores
in math have always been very good and even after 10 years of UCSMP
were still high. Unfortunately the number of students tutored in
math outside of school seemed to be increasing at an alarming rate
and across all achievement levels ... and ... anecdotal evidence
strongly suggested that there were gaps in math education that
created a need for tutoring to insure students' success in high school
(which for the most part do not use UCSMP-type programs).
Parents in District 31 are well educated and involved with the schools.
They were able to identify the weaknesses in UCSMP despite intense
parent education when UCSMP was introduced.
The community supported the decision to change math programs."
District 34 - Glenview
District 34's new website includes 69 pages of documents on their
curriculum standards for mathematics, without ever actually saying
what programs or textbooks will be used. So much for transparency.
But the essence of what a parent needs to look out for is contained
in the first sentence: "The focus of mathematics instruction
in Glenview School District #34 is to develop mathematical power
for all students. In order to accomplish this task, we have developed
a mathematics curriculum that is based on the National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards ..." OK, don't say you weren't
warned.
Another edu-babble sentence is this:
"The use of technology has altered the teaching and learning of mathematics."
Don't you love the way the educrats use the word "technology"?
It conjures up images of kids discovering woven fabrics, or
chipping of rocks to make stone tools.
(See more here.)
So, what actually happens in math class in D34?
The excellent online newsletter
Glenview Watch reported receiving this comment:
District 34 leaves a lot to be desired, especially in
teaching mathematics. Numerous tutors for a now GBS
junior and a college sophomore attest to that!
Many parents we know are in the same boat.
This should scare the living daylights out of parents in Glenview:
New School Chief Stresses Collaboration,
Glenview Journal, week of February 8, 2004. Starting sentences:
"Dr. Gerald Hill, Glenview School Dist. 34's newly appointed superintendent,
told parents and school staff gathered at Attea Middle School Feb. 9,
during his first public remarks as incoming superintendent,
that he will focus heavily on collaboration.
'Group thinking is generally better than individual thinking,' he said.
'I will embrace this collaborative environment.'"
Parents, it looks like if you want your children to value individual
thinking, you'll need to head over to one of the local Kumon centers
or pick up some Saxon books!
- The excellent online newspaper, the
Glenview Watch,
carried this letter from a reader on February 4, 2008:
"Yes, I did have to hire several math tutors for my
children while in Glenview grade schools. When my kids showed me how they were
taught math -- with a grid showing three different ways to get the correct answer,
none of which made sense to me -- I could understand why they needed a tutor.
In fact, our children were penalized for doing math in their
heads -- even easy adding and subtraction. Points were deducted from tests and
homework for failing to show work. Why do you have to explain why you can deduct
50 from 125 in your head? This made no sense to me. Also, my children were not
exposed to the classics in public school until they took a literature class in
high school. My daughter now says that if she didn't take that class she would
have no idea what her college teachers were speaking about when they make
references to classical books."
On top of all that:
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 35 - Glencoe
The notorious UCSMP "Chicago" math program is used
in the Glencoe schools, and parent Nola Krisik is actively challenging
it. Here is a report from her:
I live in Glencoe and the education problems are bad and getting
worse. Our schools K-8 use the University of Chicago Math Program.
The program has been used for several years. It is full of games
and real world discussions and extremely weak with basics, computational
skills, and clear, concise examples. The use of calculators is
started in 1st grade and by 5th grade it replaces virtually all
real pen and pencil computation. Long division is never really
taught and practiced. A child never really learns to calculate
on his own.
Parents who wish to join in the fight on fuzzy math in Glencoe
are encouraged to contact Nola at [email protected].
Barrington, Mundelein, Oak Brook and others
have beaten this thing, so can you in Glencoe!
- Progressivist schools (such as most of the schools on the North Shore) have a real problem with gender bias.
But the Glencoe PTO was unusually candid on its
website (as of December 2007:
"Boys earn two-thirds of the Ds and Fs in the district, but less [sic] than half the A's."
District 36 - Winnetka
Winnetka uses the dreaded Everyday Math in early grades,
followed by the abominable Connected Math in later grades.
One Winnetka mother wrote to us,
We use Everyday Math here and it is absolutely terrible. [When] my son ... finished
third grade [he] couldn't do double digit multiplication. ... [That] summer I taught him how I learned to do it and he
learned it in ONE MORNING!
But no one should be surprised that Winnetka embraces fuzzy math.
 |
Winnetka kids "learning" about Indians, 1940 |
After all, this is Winnetka, as in "The Winnetka Way," one of the primal
progressivist/constructivist
experiments of the 20th century.
Winnetka is also the birthplace of the American Federation of Teachers,
and is today the home of the Winnetka Alliance, which actively evangelizes
for application of progressivist/constructivist
theories.
A newly hired principal enthuses, "One of the things that most impresses
me about the district is their dedication to progressive education."
(Kevin Dorken, Greeley School principal, quoted in Winnetka Talk)
Good Lord! Given all that, it's not surprising that
the district's website says,
A curriculum that focuses primarily on the arithmetic of
the past will not prepare students for their future mathematical needs.
So, parents, you've been warned! Caveat emptor!
Interestingly, a 2004 village-wide survey commissioned by the
village's caucus confirms that there is substantial unhappiness, reporting that,
"In writing and math, 61% and 68% of households respectively,
responded that they were satisfied [or] very satified."
(Source: 2004 Winnetka Caucus Platforms.)
For a very upscale district that purports to be a leader
in educational methods, having a third of its customers expressing
dissatisfaction on core subjects is shocking.
Yessiree, as a district math facilitator was quoted in the Pioneer Press (October 12, 2006),
"That whole communication thing is so important." You betcha.
Fortunately, Winnetka and the surrounding area are well-stocked
with Kumon, Huntington and other after-school tutoring centers.
But then again, aren't your high property taxes supposed to be
paying for a solid education for your kids?
Jeff Berkowitz articles on Winnetka D36:
District 37 - Wilmette (Avoca)
For a while, there were weak signs of progress in Avoca D37. A decade ago,
the District had been threatening to adopt Chicago math (as
of May 1999). But after several candidates in a school board
election expressed concern and desire to learn more before endorsing
this move, the school backed off, and went back to "study"
its options.
Instead, the district adopted the merely mediocre Scott
Foresman Addison Wesley "Math" program. So, children in Avoca had
to suffer through the out-and-out errors, weird examples,
factual errors, politically-correct sidebars and MTV-esque format,
but at least it wasn't Chicago math.
But in 2009, Avoca D37 jumped all the way from the mediocre to the truly awful, by adopting one
most despised fuzzy math programs of all,
Investigations in Number, Data, and Space, also known as
"TERC".
(Parents, click there for more details about TERC.)
District 38 - Kenilworth (Sears)
After years of fidgeting with a math program formed from a smorgasbord
of the mediocre Scott Foresman Addison Wesley Math series,
as well as some elements of Everyday Math plus other programs,
the district was startled in December 2004 when ISAT scores revealed that one out of five of its 8th graders
weren't even meeting the low state minimum standards. The news was even worse for graduating boys:
25% of them failed to meet these minimum cutoffs.
This grim news came despite district's spending of $15,227 per student in the preceding year!
The Wilmette Life reported (December 16, 2004):
In Kenilworth's Joseph Sears School, teachers and administrators worked to
uncover the reasons why scores in two areas fell below expectations. ...
"I would say overall our scores are just fine. We were really surprised with our
eighth-grade math score," said District 38 Superintendent Linda Murphy.
As of September 2006, Kenilworth D38 has a smorgasbord of programs, with a rather unusual sequence
of starting the kids fuzzy, and then switching to a more centrist approach in third grade.
Here's how the district lists the programs they use:
- Kindergarten: Everyday Math
- Grades 1-2: SFAW Math
and Everyday Math
- Grades 3-5: Houghton Mifflin Mathematics
- Grade 6, standard: SFAW Middle School Math Course 1
- Grade 6, "intermediate and accelerated": SFAW Middle School Math Course 2
- Grade 7 pre-algebra: McDougal Littel Gateways to Algebra and Geometry
- Grade 8, standard: Globe Fearon Algebra I
- Grade 8, "intermediate and accelerated": McDougal Littel Algebra 1 An Integrated Approach
In mid-2006, the new superintendent reported that the district has taken a long-threatened
plunge into happy science:
"This past year, we implemented a renewed science curriculum, which is quite
different from the previous program. The new program is based in laboratory
experiments and is much more 'hands on.'"
(Also see our page on
science teaching.)
Significant changes have also been
made to the social studies programs, though no details are apparent so far.
In 2004-2005, Illinois State Board of Education reports indicate that D38
spent a breathtaking $16,300 per student, one of the most expensive programs in the state of Illinois.
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
Also see:
Local independent website:
60043.info.
District 39 - Wilmette
If your fuzzy math program doesn't work, try a different fuzzy math program.
That's apparently how Wilmette sees things.
After a seven-year odyssey
trying unsuccessfully to find happiness with Math Trailblazers,
the district has now (2006) decided to dump that and adopt
the infamous Everyday Math instead.
The chatty Math Trailblazers program was originally
announced with fanfare in 1999. The Wilmette Life (August 19, 1999) reported:
Math Trailblazers program will be adopted in grades
kindergarten-fourth grade next year [1999-2000] and phased in
at fifth grade starting in August. ... The materials will cost
about $60,000.
... [School Board member] Eva Sorock said she is concerned
that Trailblazers... may not be the best way for all children
to master concepts. Sorock has said the approach had its roots
in "constructivism," a ... learning approach which
critics say can de-emphasize basic skills.
... "The basic question I have always asked is, let's
have some evidence that this is going to improve [learning],"
Sorock said. "These questions aren't going to go away. They
haven't gone away in any other part of the country where it came
up. I think we're sort of rushing into this." Sorock also
said she had received two anonymous letters from teachers who
felt they were being pressured to approve the new material.
Two years later, a Wilmette Life article on March 22, 2001
mentioned the fractious nature of the Math Trailblazers program
in quoting one school board member:
"The board does have very important oversight responsibilities
including curriculum ... The Trailblazers program has been very
controversial."
By 2005, a
survey
conducted and reported by the district itself
raises alarm bells about math instruction in Wilmette public schools:
The survey found that 47.4% -- almost half! -- of parent respondents
disagreed with the statement,
"I feel that the current math materials are appropriate for my child."
Additional questions in the survey indicated substantial dissatisfaction:
42.7% were unhappy with the amount of time devoted to "computation",
and 38.3% were unhappy with the amount of time spent on "problem solving."
Some of the survey questions are unfortunately ambiguous (e.g., when someone says the
amount of time devoted to X is "inappropriate", we don't learn whether that means
they think it's too little or too much). But overall, the survey uncovers
widespread unhappiness about math in Wilmette. When parents are spending as much
in tax dollars as they are in Wilmette, it's unfortunate that they have no
options for how that money is spent on their kids, not even within the government system.
Sun-Times columnist Mary Laney wrote this in
her column for March 21, 2005:
"Recently a group of parents from suburban Wilmette asked me to meet with them. ...
Math is taught by 'The Trailblazers Math Program.' ...
The parents are angry and frustrated. I can understand why. Those I
met with said they couldn't even read the Trailblazers' math book --
and that includes a parent who was a teacher. Trailblazers is in the
genre of a new 'new math.' I had experience with "new math" when my
eldest son was in sixth grade. He brought his math homework to me and
together we worked on the problems. The next day when he returned
from school he couldn't wait to see me.
'All the answers were wrong.' ...
I have compassion for the Wilmette parents as they struggle to help their children
learn a math system that they say is hurting their preparation for high school. ...
The problem is not with the teachers, say the parents, the problem is with a
school board that has programs that are not working and stays with them."
By 2006, the district had had enough in trying to salvage Trailblazers, and was looking
for a replacement. But being good educrats, they couldn't bear to abandon
constructivist theories and move to a program
emphasizing practice, mastery and maintenance. Instead, they stuck with fuzzy math,
but chose a more typical fuzzy program, Everyday Math.
- Reading:
See this entry on the book
Straight Talk About Reading
written by former Wilmette resident Susan L. Hall.
District 54 - Schaumburg
Reading
You have to search pretty hard on D54's elaborate web pages on its
"Balanced Literacy Model" to find even the slimmest begrudging mention
of anything like phonics.
Mostly what you'll read is a great deal of blather about "shared reading",
"word study", "essential outcomes",
"guided reading" and the ever-popular "independent reading"
(see our section on Sustained Silent Reading).
Even when you think you've found the needle of real teaching
in the haystack of mush, you may be only misled: For example,
D54's stated definition of "decoding strategies" includes
the Whole Language hallmark "context clues".
Math
We're dumbfounded by why D54 decided to highlight its webpage on math
with this quotation:
"Mathematics is merely the means to a general and ultimate knowledge of man."
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Huh????
But maybe that just is to warn us about the district's fuzziness about math,
which soon becomes evident.
Around 2000, D54 promoted the use in K-5 of either Everyday Math (the classic fuzzy math program)
or MathLand (a horrific fuzzy math program).
At one point, four of D54's schools Blackwell, Churchill, Lincoln Prairie and Muir) used MathLand, but we can't find any evidence
that this still is the case (thank goodness). D54 parents, can you tell us more?
At least one of D54's schools now uses 70 minute math classes,
with the cryptic statement, "With the introduction of the Everyday Math series,
we devote a large amount of time to math." We wonder if that's to make up for the confusion created by that program.)
We have no information on what math programs D54 uses in grades 6-8. For a while,
the D54 website bore the bad news that they used
McDougal Littell's MathThematics, but that seems to have been pulled from the site.
(Mathematically Correct reviewed MathThematics and reported that it exhibited
"weakness in content, weakness in presentation, and weakness in student work",
concluding, "It is not possible to recommend this book to anyone for any purpose.")
Parents, can you tell us more about junior high math in D54?
For a while, D54 had a "Math Task Force" to delve into
the farthest reaches of constructivist wackiness.
This group seemed to think they'll actually help kids learn math in some mysterious way by asking staffers
to digest stuff like
Teaching With the Brain In Mind
(click for our review).
Science
D54's website virtually shouts that their science program is all about process rather than content.
A
single webpage outlines the entire K-8 course of study in science, while other descriptive pages
hammer home the progressivist theme of "inquiry."
Social "Sciences"
It comes as no surprise that D54's so called "social sciences" [sic] program continues the fuzzy regimen.
The D54 website provides a K-8 topical overview that follows the usual dumbed-down outline common in our area.
To add some humor to the day, the D54 website provides minutes of a group of educrats planning the
development of the "social sciences" program. To preserve them, we've bundled them
here: Minutes of "social sciences task force."
Just imagine this assemblage of savants attending meeting after meeting
on the fine points of writing a mission statement, creating a "core beliefs statement" of how classes should run,
and [inevitably] breaking into small groups to prattle on to each other -- all without any discussion of
the actual subject matter content of these courses. You just can't make up this kind of stuff.
Other Notes
Not surprisingly, Schaumburg boasts several promising private schools for parents seeking an alternative to D54.
For more on Catholic, Lutheran and other private school choices in Schaumburg, see the section
of private schools by town at the bottom of this listing.
As an example, we note an article in the Daily Herald (January 28, 2007) reporting
on local Catholic school St. Hubert's, "With more than 630 students, the school is among the largest in the Chicago Archdiocese".
The article adds, "The trend at St. Hubert's is even more remarkable considering the strong reputation of the local public schools."
Hmmm: Maybe the trend at St. Hubert's is because of the local public schools?
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm School Perceptions, LLC, for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about School Perceptions, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 57 - Mount Prospect
Sad to say, this is another district with Everyday Math.
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 59 - Elk Grove / Arlington Heights / Des Plaines / Mt. Prospect
At last report, D59 uses Scott Foresman Addison Wesley's Math,
a thick, glitzy series featuring Tokyo-by-Night graphics, odd
ways of doing math, factual errors, low levels of challenge,
and meat-handed multiculturalism.
District 62 - Des Plaines
The district's official plan for improvement includes this fuzz-free common sense goal:
"Students will improve mathematics skills in the areas of computation and problem solving."
In addition, on their website one of D62's schools mentions that they
"use a traditional math series and a supplemental program called Otter Creek, in order to teach both basic facts and problem solving."
Hmm, sounds promising! Can anyone tell us more about math in Des Plaines? Thanks!
District 63 - East Maine
(Niles, Glenview, Park Ridge, and Morton Grove)
A "Teachers Inservice" document on the district website
features such elements as these:
To make matters even worse, the same document also highlights
"V-796 THE FOUR BLOCKS: Classrooms That Work".
(Read more about the "Four Blocks" system of Whole Language
reading instruction at this page.)
However, a parent in D63 told us (April 2008),
"For math, they are using Math Expressions (Houghton Mifflin) and for reading, they use phonics and guided group reading."
District 64 - Park Ridge/Niles
It appears that a new math program was initiated in 2003, and one
of the district's schools (Field) is said to be piloting a new mathematics program
for all grades. We have learned nothing more about either of these bits of news.
The district website provides a sentence that encapsulates one of the key reasons
that fuzzy math is so frustrating for some students:
We believe that children further develop their problem solving capabilities by
orally explaining their solutions to math problems.
An equivalent statement might be, "Students with limited literacy or verbal skills will
find that our approach will result in lower math scores as well."
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
In September 2006, the Journal & Topics newspaper group reported that the D64 school board hired
"Unicom-ARC to plan and conduct a program of public engagement at a cost not to exceed $40,000.
This will be a public relations campaign leading up to a referendum election."
District 65 - Evanston / Skokie
D65 has a long history of having 1) a need for improvement,
2) innovators proposing charter schools, and 3) an administration
committed to stopping such plans in their tracks in order
to retain iron control.
One of the saddest lost opportunities was a proposal for a charter school
that would have used the much-praised Direct Instruction approach with 540 students
from kindergarten through 5th grade.
In math, District 65 is one more district that burdens its children with
Everyday Math for Kindergarten through fifth grade.
An Evanston parent wrote to us (September 2007) to tell us about her family's experience:
[Our school] currently use[s] Everyday Math
-- my child comes home from school with homework
that I cannot even understand, and is extremely upset because he can't understand it
either. It amazes me how they can adopt these types of math programs without research
to back up success. I am supplementing my son's math with Saxon Math .. it just makes sense.
Cause and effect? We report, you decide:
- April 2000:
The district, in conjunction with the Orwellian-named
"School of Education and Social Policy" at Northwestern,
has announced a new "Lighthouse Partnership". One component
of the program involves math: As the university's PR department
puts it,
The "Learn-While-Teaching" program would offer
a series of in-service training sessions to teachers at two elementary
schools (perhaps Oakton and Washington) focusing on the learning
and teaching of math. The program would complement the District's
plans to release some teachers a half-day a week to work on the
teaching and learning of mathematics.
Uh, so what does
this all mean? Seems like a lot of time removed from
teaching so as to study heavens-knows-what at the hands of the
ed school folks.
- November 2005:
From the Evanston Review, November 3, 2005:
Oakton School ... saw its passing rate in fifth grade reading take a dive from
63 to 42 percent, while its passing rate in math dropped from 87 to 65 percent. ...
At Washington School, a drop from 70 to 56 percent in third grade reading and
from 86 to 71 percent in math pulled down the school's overall performance.
Another tidbit from that "partnership" announced in 2000 concerns
science. The same university PR said,
"Innovative [how come we never hear about "better"
or "more effective"?] science curricula will be
used at Chute, Haven and Nichols middle schools and King and
Timber Ridge magnet schools" which will install a program
designed to be a "technology-infused science curricula that
allow middle schol students to engage in scientific curricula
that allow middle school students to engage in scientific enquiry
and work with complex scientific data in much the same way real-world
scientists do." What edubabble hogwash! As one scientist
has noted, the most important process skill in science is reading:
if we actually had kids do what scientists do, then reading and
learning would be the paramount goal.
- To keep up on developments in D65, here are the links for the
Evanston Roundtable
and the
Evanston Review. Both report on developments, although they both tend to be
fairly trusting of D65.
District 67 - Golf
We want to weep with joy!
We were alerted to developments in Golf by a parent who told us,
Our [child]'s middle school, Golf, has posted information on their current textbooks.
Looks like the new administration is cleaning up some old messes!
Thanks for a great resource, this site is wonderful.
(Thank you!)
We checked it out, and sure enough, the news was good: Hynes Elementary (K-4) uses the
Silver Burdett Ginn math series and Golf Middle School (grades 5-8) uses
McDougal-Littell "Math". SBG generally has been fairly traditional in its math programs, as far as we can tell.
McDougal-Littell is all over the map, but we have hopes that this series "Math" is the more mastery-oriented
of their programs.
District 68 - Skokie
A resident sent us (September 1, 2005) this sad news:
Thank you for your wonderful site.
Math Trailblazers has been put into the
District 68 Skokie grade schools. I think just 4th and/or 5th grade at the
moment. I don't know if they'll be adding it to the lower grades. I believe
they will, but don't know for sure.
District 69 - Skokie / Morton Grove
This district uses the chatty and
time-wasting Math Trailblazers program.
You know, the one that Wilmette dumped in 2006 after enduring a few years of controversy.
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
And the spinmeisters hit the ground running in Skokie, with a marathon training
session. The district's board minutes report,
Dr. Nelson reported that on August 5, 2005, members of the referendum committee
and other interested parties attended a seven-hour seminar, which was conducted by Unicom.Arc.
The committee will use this information as they launch into the next level of the campaign.
Dr. Nelson thanked Ann Clark for heading up the referendum committee.
Cal Skinner's
blog provides
these additional insights:
"It is reasonably safe to say that [UNICOM-Arc] is helping pass the referendum in Skokie
financed by the District 69 Referendum Committee. It has paid Unicom Arc $10,828.71 for
'consulting' since its 10/21/05 emergence. Much of the financing came from individuals,
although development interests made, by far, the largest contributions."
District 70 - Morton Grove / Park View
In a classic case of spin control, the district is busy trying
to explain away poor ISAT results following a switch to a new
math curriculum. (Parents, what's going on there? What program
is in use?) According to the Morton Grove Champion (Jan. 13,
2000), "Math scores on the ISAT test show more than half
of eighth graders were below state standards. Third and fifth
graders did better, but still almost a quarter of them fell below
state standards. For third graders, more than a fifth fell below
those standards." Superintendent James Blockinger is quoted
as saying that the new math curriculum "places more emphasis
on problem solving rather than computational skills."
Well, hey, Mr. Blockinger, reducing the emphasis on computation
skills should help those lousy scores, eh?
District 71 - Niles (Culver)
District 72 - Skokie (Fairview)
District 73 - East Prairie
In 2002, the district adopted the much-loathed
Everyday Math program.
The district says that it is confident that
"Any problems with the math program ... would be
solved with additional staff development."
Yea, that's the ticket, sure!
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 73 1/2 - Skokie
Here's a district that believes in Truth in Advertising:
Classrooms are child-centered, developmentally appropriate and focus on
the process of learning and reflection about the learning process. ...
Our middle school has been selected by the United States Department of
Education as a 2001-2001
Blue Ribbon School.
Whew!!! Don't say you weren't warned!
Younger grades may be using
Everyday Math, but we have not been able to confirm that.
Grades 6-8 use Mathematics in Context (MIC).
One teacher wrote to us,
My school district, District 87, in Bloomington, Illinois adopted the
Mathematics in Context
series, which was developed by the Wisconsin Center for Education
Research, for grades 6-8 several years ago. In my opinion, this series has been
a dismal failure in teaching math.
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 74 - Lincolnwood
The Lincolnwood district is very unusual in hosting a page
on its website for its teachers' union to promote itself. Whoa!
On the other hand, the website of the district and its schools
is remarkably scant on telling what actually happens in the classroom.
We do learn, unfortunately, that math is "taught" with
Everyday Math.
We also learn that "Curriculum integrates strategies
for conflict resolution and results in a 'Peaceable School' environment",
whatever that's supposed to mean.
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 78 - Rosemont
District 79 - Norridge (Pennoyer)
D79, a single-school district in Norridge, is taking reading seriously.
This is from their website as their goal #1 for the 2005-06 year:
1. Incorporate DIBELS, (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills), a
screening process to identify preschool through first grade students who are at
risk of reading failure. DIBELS will be used as a measure of early literacy
skills, a screening tool, a progress monitoring tool and a guide for intervention
decisions.
Cheers for Pennoyer!
In math, D79 uses the mediocre, not-great-but-not-horrible,
Scott Foresman Addison Wesley Math program.
We found a remarkable quote from the Pennoyer sup in a February 3, 2005 article in the
Pioneer Press Norridge and Harwood Heights News:
"Right now, the quality of your children's education depends on your address,"
said Superintendent Tom Zafiratos, of Pennoyer District 79 in Norridge.
Very true! The obvious solution to that problem is
simply to let parents choose the best school for their kids, regardless of their address.
But with the true mind of an embedded bureaucrat, Supt. Zafiratos instead argues to
keep the turf empires in control and give them more money.
District 80 - Norridge
Another school supporting Truth In Advertising: Superintendent Sue Knight's
website message gives parents fair warning:
"Welcome to the 2005-2006 school year. Student-centered instruction remains our
goal for curriculum mapping ..."
Apparently this district uses the Tokyo-by-Night
Scott Foresman Addison Wesley "Math" series for K-5.
For "Jr. High" the district
reports it uses "Holt Rhinehart" [sic] for pre-algebra and algebra.
Can anyone tell us more?
District 81 - Schiller Park
Help other parents:
Be the first to tell us about math in this district!
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 83 - Mannheim (Franklin Park, Melrose Park, Northlake)
The district's website says that its math textbooks are
Houghton Mifflin Math
and
McDougal Littell Math.
District 84 - Franklin Park
From the district website:
The Addison Wesley Mathematics program is our basic math series.
Initial instruction is as concrete as possible, frequently
incorporating manipulative materials. Much time and effort is spent
in the acquisition of the basic math facts of addition,
subtraction, multiplication, and division. Extra consideration is
given to problem solving techniques at all levels. Kindergarten
children benefit from the Math Their Way program.
District 84 1/2 - River Grove (Rhodes)
District 85 1/2 - River Grove
District 86 - Harwood Heights (Union Ridge)
District 87 - Berkeley
A parent writes to us,
We have endured years of students using Accelerated Math as the entire math
program. Imagine being a student and being in a math library that may be years below
your actual grade level. You could be an 8th grader and test into a 4th grade
library. Our children had little opportunity to be exposed to grade level
material. Is it no wonder two of our schools are in SERIOUS trouble on the
Illinois Academic Watch list?
District 88 - Bellwood
District 89 - Maywood / Melrose Park
District 90 - River Forest
A community resident advised us (November 2008),
Everyday Math was introduced this year.
A curriculum committee of teachers and administrators is evaluating whether to continue using it ...
And guess what happened? A victory for real math! A resident reports,
With zero fanfare River Forest District 90 has dropped
Everyday Math and adopted
Houghton Mifflin's Math Expressions through grade four or five as of the
2009-2010 school year.
District 91 - Forest Park
District 92 - Broadview (Lindop)
District 92 1/2 - Westchester
The district apparently uses a math program from Houghton Mifflin,
but we have no other information as yet.
District 93 - Hillside
It seems that Hillside may be in the process of changing to a new math
program in 2005-06, but we have no details.
Can you tell us anything?
District 94 - North Riverside (Komarek)
District 95 - Brookfield/LaGrange Park
A district end-of-year report for 2005-06 says, "The Math Committee teachers have assessed
Mathematics Text Books from
various companies and a new series (Pearson) was adopted." Board minutes report,
"The committee finalized the process to adopt new a Math series. It
includes Prentice Hall out of Pearson (Grades 6,7,8) and Scott
Foresman (Grade 5)."
Can anyone tell us more?
We love this:
D95 not only uses DIBELS measurement for mastery of phonics, but reports its results!
In the same year-end wrapup report, D95 tells us that 90% of its Kindergarteners
and 97% of its first graders
are at a stated "Meets /Exceeds" level.
- We'd be remiss if we didn't mention that Brookfield is also home to
one of the strongest academic school programs in the area, at
St. Paul's Lutheran School.
Rev. Joel A. Brondos, headmaster at St. Paul's, wrote to tell us about it:
We use Saxon Math, the Spalding Writing Road to Reading,
the Shurley Grammar method,
and teach our history timeline and daily oral Latin to students as young as Kindergarten.
We have a literature-based reading program (no basal readers) so the children read unabridged
versions of classical works like those written by Homer, Chesterton, Plutarch, and more.
District 96 - Riverside
Uses Everyday Math (the infamous "Chicago math"
series). The district says,
In 2004-05, the district is implementing a new mathematics curriculum in grades
K-8. For the elementary schools, the new curriculum is an updated version of the
University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP or Everyday Math).
For junior high students in grades 6, 7, and 8, the 2004 editions of the
Glencoe/McGraw-Hill series, Math Applications and Concepts has been implemented,
along with the Algebra 1 book for eighth graders.
What a shame.
District 97 - Oak Park
District 98 - Berwyn North
District 99 - Cicero
District 100 - South Berwyn
It looks like South Berwyn uses the fuzzy Everyday Math.
The district is embarked on a $80,000 program from "Reading First Academy."
Also see:
District 100's internal website, which includes teacher agreements, rules and salary schedules.
District 101 - Western Springs
In grades 1 through 5, the district says it uses the
Math Advantage program from Harcourt Brace.
However, at least one 6th grade teacher's own web page refers to use of the
UCSMP math program, a.k.a., Chicago math.
District 102 - LaGrange North (Brookfield, LaGrange, LaGrange Park)
District 103 - Lyons
In K-5, Lyons uses the chatty and so-trendy Math Trailblazers fuzzfest, then
a McDougal Littell math program in grades 6-8.
District 104 - Summit
District 105 - LaGrange South
In one fell swoop, administrators have imposed
"balanced" literacy for reading, and the lamentable
Connected Math
as its math program. Good luck, parents.
District 106 - LaGrange Highlands
District 107 - Burr Ridge (Pleasantdale)
A parent wrote (2008) to tell us of Burr Ridge's math program:
They are now using enVision and basically getting slammed. It is time consuming
and tough on the teachers as well as very challenging for the kids. In
kindergarten, the kids only learn to identify numbers up to 20 so this series is
really hard on the younger ones.
2006: Unlike the website of its neighbor, D106, the website here at D107 is maddeningly sparse on telling
us what, if anything, the kids are actually learning. There are a bunch of pictures of kids in "math" classes
sitting on the floor (in small groups, of course)
playing heavens-knows-what inscrutible games with what looks like a square soccer ball, but that's about it.
(By the way, for a wonderful example of the excesses of the disjointed, jigsawed,
Crayola curriculum that passes for "social studies" in American schools,
take a look at this page
on the third graders' Paper Plate Book Reports.)
District 108 - Willow Springs
Hmmm, interesting. As part of its "School Improvement Plan" for 2005-06, Willow Springs
says that in order to improve student writing skills,
"Math journaling will be piloted to consistently provide students the opportunity
to write about what they learned in math." Note that this is not a goal under improving
the math program. So, like many of the fuzzy math curricula themselves,
Willow Springs unintentionally is turning a deficit in literacy into a handicap
for math as well.
District 109 - Indian Springs
Score points for truth in advertising. Right from the district's web page on its
"Curriculum Strategy" we are told:
"Curriculum development in District #109 has broken away from a
compartmentalized, textbook directed philosophy to a standards-driven approach
that actively engages students in the
learning and assessment experience. This
concept provides a framework from which teachers can develop robust units of
study that actively involve students in
real-world problem solving. ... Children
learn best when they are actively engaged in what they are doing.
In other words, don't say you weren't warned!
But the good news is that despite that rhetoric, the district has adopted
a respectable math program as its foundation:
In February, 2003, after
months of sampling the top three programs and conducting
staff surveys, the committee recommended that the Board of
Education adopt SRA Mathematics for grades K-5, Glencoe
Mathematics for grades 7 and 8, and SRA/Glencoe for grade 6.
That's a pleasant surprise (although a bit of a paradox as well).
District 110 - Central Stickney
District 111 - Burbank
District 113a - Lemont/Bromberek
D113 apparently uses Houghton Mifflin's Math Central program.
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
A D113a reader of this page told us that the district hired UNICOM-ARC in June 2007 for up to
$5,000 per month for the next 18 months!
District 117 - North Palos
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
Cal Skinner's
blog provides
these additional insights:
"Citizens for North Palos School Dist 117 Schools was formed 'to pass
(a) referendum for North Palos School Dist 117.' It was formed on Feb. 7, 2005, and
went out of existence on April 28th. Unicom Arc got paid $4,007.95 on Feb. 11th for consulting
out of a total of $17,820 spent. The committee was financed largely by vendor
and the Illinois Education Association (the teachers' union)."
District 118 - Palos
A Palos resident wrote to us (2008):
The district has adopted the Everyday Math program for the 2008/9 school year.
The district refused to make this change public until it was already adopted.
There was no public hearing or disclosure allowed, the curriculum was simply dictated to the community.
This is the third different math curriculum the district has implemented in the last six years.
District 122 - Ridgeland
Ridgeland was in the news in February 2006 when two of its principals
were discharged, apparently due to weak test scores. Since
school administrators rarely are held responsible for academic
results, this was indeed noteworthy.
Unfortunately, the official Ridgeland website is eerily void
of curriculum or other information on what actually goes on in its classrooms.
Can anyone help by telling us the details?
District 123 - Oak Lawn / Hometown
Uses the notorious Everyday Math program.
An Oak Lawn parent told us (November 2008),
We have Everyday Math and my [daughter] still can't do basic math because
of the ridiculous way this is taught. When we try to teach
her the "right" way she tells us she will get in trouble if she gets the answers this way.
Another Oak Lawn parent wrote to us (February 2009),
Our school district uses the Everyday Disaster!! ... Angry, and frustrated, we just want our [child] to learn math!
... No textbook, makes it impossible to know what they're being taught ...
I've heard other parents only say, "Just wait, it just gets worse! ...
I've heard so many other parents complain, but why aren't WE doing anything?????
For students who are behind in learning to read, D123 is under the impression
that the expensive and dubious
Reading Recovery (click for info)
program will somehow solve the problem.
District 124 - Evergreen Park
District 125 - Atwood Heights (Alsip, Oak Lawn, Merrionette Park)
District 126 - Alsip, Hazel Green, Oak Lawn
- D126 succumbed to
Everyday Math
starting in the 2004-2005 school year.
D126 in the news:
-
Oak Lawn Mom Demands Decency From District 126, Culture Campaign, August 09, 2007.
Excerpt:
"Parents should be able to trust educators to choose reading material for children that does not contain gratuitous profanity and graphic sexuality ...
Apparently the media and educators believe that ...
graphic profanity and sexuality should never be a reason to reject a book for
children ... It's extremely difficult to sympathize with such reasoning."
-
Illinois School Pushes Smut on Children
by Matt Barber, August 29, 2007, Excerpts:
"The profane content ... isn't sporadic. It's pervasive and gratuitous.
The book has 110 pages containing the F-word and other profanities, and there are
multiple crude sexual references. ... I telephoned Robert Berger, superintendent
of schools for District 126, fully expecting him to assure me that this
foolishness would be remedied. But instead, his response was defiant, defensive
and arrogant.
Berger refused to answer me when I asked him several times if District 126
believed that such mature content was appropriate for children. (I wonder: if
it's so appropriate, then why wouldn't he defend it?)"
District 127 - Worth
District 127 1/2 - Chicago Ridge
District 128 - Palos Heights
District 130 - Blue Island, Crestwood, Alsip
District 132 - Calumet Park
This struggling school district has adopted Saxon Math for the 2006-2007 school year.
We wish them all the best in their efforts for the success of their kids!
District 133 - Patton (Riverdale)
District 135 - Orland Park
D135 uses the not-all-bad, not-all-good
Scott Foresman Addison Wesley "Math" series
for all grades K-8.
It has a Tokyo-by-night design and weird sidebars, but it's not altogether
awful in teaching math.
District 140 - Kirby (Tinley Park, Orland Park)
A resident wrote to tell us the sad news that D140 has adopted
Everyday Math,
starting with the 2006-2007 year.
District 142 - Forest Ridge (Oak Forest)
District 143 - Midlothian
District 143 1/2 - Posen / Robbins
District 144 - Prairie Hills (Markham, Hazel Crest, Oak Forest, Country Club Hills)
District 145 - Arbor Park (Oak Forest, Tinley Park)
District 146 - Tinley Park
Oh, this is a sad one!
D146 was one of the few districts in the entire Chicago area to be using the admirable
SRA Math Explorations and Applications program,
an admirable choice -- a solid and effective math series.
But now we've learned that Tinley Park has descended to using the grim
Math Trailblazers fuzz-fest.
A D146 parent wrote to us,
I wanted to give the Trailblazer Math program a chance. But by giving it a
chance my [child] cannot do multipication nor ... add or subtract without a
calculator. How is it ... [my child] can be getting an A without knowing
the basic math skills? Trailblazer Math is setting our children up to fail.
What the heck happened to your school, Tinley Park parents?
District 147 - West Harvey / Dixmoor
D147 says, "America's Choice, a standards-based reform program, was implemented in District schools the year 2001."
(There are lots of these so-called "whole school reform" vendors: we have
a healthy list of many of them here.)
The district web site also says,
"We have also provided middle school teachers with weekly math training
through a partnership with the University of Illinois. [Uh oh!]
We have provided teachers within grades K-4 training in Algebraic Thinking and standards based math instruction.
[Uh oh again!]"
Meanwhile, the ISBE and the state's attorney's office sure are busy collecting other information
about the district. According to a Tribune article by reporter Jo Napolitano on
July 20, 2006:
The Illinois State Board of Education wants West Harvey-Dixmoor Elementary
School District 147 to return more than $2.2 million in federal and state grants,
saying the money was either unaccounted for or misspent. ... An inch-thick report
from the months-long investigation into how the district spent about $10.2 million
in grants over a 3-year period ending in 2005 was released Wednesday. ...
Robert Wolfe, head of the state board's external assurance division, said his
office has a legal and moral obligation to make sure the grants "get to the kids
who need it the most." Although many of the district's employees may be working hard to educate
children, the spending and record-keeping practices are unacceptable, Wolfe said. ...
The state's attorney's office has asked for a copy of the report and is
conducting an investigation of the district, said a source familiar with the
probe. State officials say the $2.2 million includes more than $119,000 in meals,
$157,000 in travel and $211,000 for salaries and benefits, none of which is
allowable under terms of the grants. The district spent $119,491 on items
including clown services, cameras, televisions, furniture and T-shirts, which are
also not allowed.
Records show the state found more than 200 questionable expenditures in Title I
funds alone. That money is earmarked for children from low-income families to
help them meet state academic standards. ...
The district used Title I funds to purchase $250 worth of costumes and wigs for
an end-of-the-year party, $562 for Fannie May candies and $471 for a pizza party
for students with perfect attendance, records show. Thousands more was spent on
electronic equipment, including a $328 digital camera.
School officials used the same grant to pay a visiting speaker about $7,200 to
talk about student achievement. An additional $2,400 was spent on baby-sitters to
allow parents to attend a school meeting.
Then there's the food.
Mini-Kaiser sandwich trays, chicken, salads and rolls and other meals added
thousands more; a lunch cruise in February 2005 cost $1,800. ...
They took numerous trips but didn't keep adequate records or receipts, state
officials said. It's hard to tell who went where and for what purpose in some
cases.
District 148 - Dolton, Riverdale
District 149 - Dolton, Calumet City, South Holland
District 150 - South Holland
District 151 - South Holland, Phoenix, Harvey
District 152 - Harvey
Uses the very trendy and fuzzy Math Trailblazers program, but
supplemented with "a math computer program to help the kids get ready for ISAT."
Uh, is that because Math Trailblazers doesn't?
As a bit of good news, this district claims to now be using
a "scientifically based" reading program, with DIBELS assessment.
District 152 1/2 - Hazel Crest
District 153 - Homewood
District 154 - Thorton (Wolcott)
District 154 1/2 - Burnham
District 155 - Calumet City
District 156 - Lincoln (Calumet City)
District 157 - Hoover/Schrum (Calumet City)
District 158 - Lansing
Reportedly uses Math Their Way.
In language arts, the district uses the dubious
Reading Recovery program.
District 159 - Matteson / Richton Park
District 160 - Country Club Hills
District 161 - Flossmoor
Flossmoor is absolutely unique among Chicago area school districts.
See our section on Flossmoor in our
web page on "Finding Good Schools."
District 162 - Matteson
District 163 - Park Forest
Back in 1999, Mary Damer visited a school in Park Forest and
concluded that she had "walked into the most delightful K-3 school
that I have seen in many years." She wrote of her experiences
in this essay:
A Little Bit Of Heaven In Illinois: Reading In A Small School
by Mary Damer, December 12, 1999.
Since then, the woman who was primarily responsible for this school's
success has moved on, and we have no idea what has been happening
in Park Forest since then. But the essay serves as a powerful
reminder and encouragement of what is possible.
------------------------------
District 167 - Brookwood (Glenwood)
District 168 - Sauk Village
District 169 - Ford Heights
District 170 - Chicago Heights
District 171 - Sunnybrook (Lansing)
District 172 - Sandridge (Chicago Heights)
District 194 - Steger
District 202 - Evanston Township High School
In Early 1998, Evanston Township High School instituted a
double-period algebra course, claiming it would "allow students
taking algebra for the first time as freshmen to complete two
years of work in one year." Yeah, right. Click here
for more info on the dangers of block scheduling.
District 203 - New Trier Township High School
- In 2011, there is an open, competitive election for school board! Democracy, what a concept!
For info, see the website of Fiscal Responsibility for New Trier.
New Trier in the news:
- Big Pay Boosts In Last Years Blow Out Retirement Packages by Tim Novak,
Chicago Sun-Times, July 13, 2003.
"Henry Bangser, New Trier High School's
superintendent, is looking forward to retirement in 2006. And why
wouldn't he? A flurry of 20 percent pay raises will hike his
annual pension as high as $232,500. That's more than governors
get. And even if you don't live in Bangser's rich North Shore
district, you'll pay for it."
-
Officials Try To Reform Complicated State-Funded Pension System
by Jim Muir and Caleb Hale, Southern Illinoisan, August 21, 2005.
"In the New Trier Township High School District, Superintendent
Henry Bangser received a series of 20 percent pay increases over his
last five years before retirement, nearly doubling his salary to an
estimated $346,000, not including other bonuses he was set to
receive.
'Taxpayers are already paying incredibly high real estate taxes to
cover school funding but some of these folks act like there is this
hidden pot of money in Springfield ... And as long as
the local school district isn't paying for it, then its okay.'"
- The average teacher salary at New Trier in 2006 was $82,835, most for 10 months of work.
This is the second highest average teacher salary in the state of Illinois.
(Source:
Champion News at Champion News.)
District 208 - Riverside/Brookfield
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 211 - Palatine, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg
D211's website bears the headline, "The Largest High School
District in Illinois." We suppose that's peachy if the goal is empire building, but it's not immediately
obvious how that claim offers any benefit to students or parents.
The high school district has been trying to make a case that
its switch to the infamous "block
scheduling" fad has not been detrimental. According
to the Schaumburg Review, a presentation to parents in February
2000 focused on higher GPAs. Left unsaid is what block scheduling
opponents nationwide have been observing for years: that the
switch the block scheduling encourages less challenging academics,
and leads to higher grades being given for lower levels of academic
achievement.
A major focus of controversy among parents is the impact of
block scheduling on math. The paper quotes one mother whose daughter
told her that there were questions on a math test regarding material
that hadn't been covered in class. Yup, that's the dumbing-down
effect of block scheduling.
- As of 2003, D211 has the highest average teacher salary in the
entire state. The average teacher salary is $87,407, most
for ten months of work.
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
- Also see:
Local independent blog,
District 211 Public Schools
District 212 - Leyden Township High School
Board of Ed approves an NCTM-flavored "integrated"
math program that will supposedly expose "students to all
facets of mathematics in short bursts". The Pioneer Press
quoted math chairman Earl Cooney saying that
"One problem
may ask students to compare the statistics of Michael Jordan
and Kareem Abdul-Jabar.' While that may appear to be simple,
Cooney said it is the kind of technique that is generally reserved
for top students and college-aged youth."
Yee-gawds!!!
District 214 - Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove, Rolling Meadows, Wheaton
Can you say, "push polling"?
This district has used professional PR and polling firm Decision Resources for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about Decision Resources, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 217 - Argo
- Algebra is taught using either Algebra I from McDougal Littell,
or Algebra I Concepts and Skills from McDougal Littell.
- The average teacher salary at Argo in 2006 was $83,833, most for 10 months of work.
This is the highest average teacher salary in the state of Illinois.
(Source:
Champion News.)
District 219 - Niles, Lincolnwood, Skokie, Morton Grove
District 225 - Glenbrook High Schools
District 227 - Rich
District 228 - Bremen
District 229 - Oak Lawn
District 230 - Orland Park
District 231 - Evergreen Park
District 233 - Homewood/Flossmoor
District 234 - Ridgewood
District 401 - Elmwood Park
Parents had better prepare to find ways to make sure their children
learn math following recent district decisions!
The district has adopted the fuzzy
Math Trailblazers
as its program for grades K through 5.
In March 1998, School Board used a rich supply of fuzzy math
rhetoric in approving Connected Math
as the new math curriculum
for 6th through 8th grade.
As if to cement the district's dubious reputation, a newsletter from February 2004
cites an assembly performance sponsored by their PTA...
...about a girl who doesn't read well.
She and two friends take a journey and learn the golden rules of reading ...
Make connections to the text /
Use your senses to make a picture in your mind. /
Make some inferences while you read, /
which means to read between the lines. /
Don't forget to ask questions all along the way. /
Use these "golden reading rules", /
And you'll read better every day!" /
Keep on with your wild guesses, sweetheart! And maybe your parents can take you to an afterschool
tutoring program so you can master phonics and learn how to decode correctly!
DUPAGE COUNTY
District 2 - Bensenville
Mohawk School (and the rest of the district?)
uses the notorious Everyday Math program, which is described on
the school's website with a straight face as "a rigorous mathematics curriculum".
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 4 - Addison
Aaaaccckk!
In K-5, Addison's kids are assaulted with the super-fuzzy
MathLand program, one of the worst of the worst.
To top it off, grades 6-8 get the widely despised
Connected Math program.
District 7 - Wood Dale
As of spring 2002, the Wood Dale district subjected its
students to Everyday Math.
Since Everyday Math, like
most other fuzzy math programs, presumes strong reading and writing
skills, its damaging effects are worsened when a school's
basic literacy program follows progressivist fads as well. Sure enough:
In 2003-4, parents in Wood Dale were battling the district in an attempt
to replace the failing "balanced literacy" program with a substantive
phonics-based program. A newspaper story reported,
Disgruntled parents at the Wood Dale Elementary School District 7 Board meeting
voiced their displeasure with Illinois Standards Achievement Test reading scores,
which they said have suffered under the current curriculum.
Although student scores have hovered around state averages for the last five
years, several parents at Wednesday night's meeting pressed administrators to
implement a phonics-based reading program. ... "Our [system] seems to be running
a little bit slow and each year the gap is increasing," said Maria Guzman, a
certified teacher and mother of two Wood Dale Elementary pupils.
... Armed with newspaper articles and researched alternatives, parents insisted
on the implementation of a new program in as soon as six weeks.
"Our children don't have time; the system that we have now is broken," said
parent Frank Skorski at the meeting's open comments portion that lasted nearly an
hour. "If water started leaking in the basement, you wouldn't call a committee."
-- "Wood Dale Parents Call For Change In Reading,"
by Grace Aduroja, Chicago Tribune, November 21, 2003
District 10 - Itasca
District 11 - Medinah
Be the first to tell us about math in this district!
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 12 - Roselle
District 13 - Bloomingdale
District 15 - Marquardt (Glendale Heights)
We received (2009) this depressing news about Marquardt:
The middle school is unfortunately doing the
Connected Math Program,
and the students are not succeeding. ... [they] are still trying
... to learn their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
FACTS in the middle school. This is because it is not being taught in the
elementary schools, which are going through
Everyday Math.
District 16 - Queen Bee (Glendale Heights)
District 20 - Keeneyville
Ugh. Keeneyville appears to love jumping into the latest fads,
since it has adopted the fuzzy Math Trailblazers program.
The district "serves" Keeneyville, Roselle, Bloomingdale and Hanover Park.
District 25 - Benjamin (West Chicago)
District 33 - West Chicago
District 34 - Winfield
District 41 - Glen Ellyn
An item on the D41 website suggests that a " new Mathematics curriculum and materials" were adopted in 2002.
Another web item says,
"District 41's math curriculum is closely aligned with the Illinois Academic
Standards and the National Council of Teachers of Mathmatics Standards. Among the
math resources we use is the Harcourt Math Series..."
A Glen Ellyn resident reports (November 2008),
D41 in Glen Ellyn ... will be discussing the implementation of
Everyday Math
at the Nov. 17 and Dec. 1 board meetings.
(It is currently being piloted in one class per grade at our elementary school.)
The
Everyday Math
texts will then be on 'display' for 30 days after which a Board vote will take place.
Although this page focuses on math, it is worth a sidebar
to discuss the use of a program called
Reading Recovery
in Glen Ellyn. According to an item on the District 41 website,
"National-Louis University continues to train teachers in
its Reading Recovery program in District 41 schools."
Residents would do well to
investigate more about Reading Recovery
and how it is being applied in your schools.
Be sure to read this classic, an essay by a fifth grader in Glen Ellyn
published in her local newspaper.
It starts,
"I'm having fun in fifth grade in District 41."
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
In Fenruary 2007, a parent wrote to us,
The district is holding three "forums" around the community to educate the public
as to the district's challenges. ... The participating audience will be
broken up into small groups and scattered (sounds like "divide and conquer" to
me). Is this the new way to mind control voters? It feels almost Orwellian.
This parent was quite correct in sensing that something disturbing is happening here!
This is the Delphi technique, a classic method for creating an illusion of support
for controversial positions. To learn much more about how Delphi is used by school districts,
read our page on School Committees and Delphi.
Also see:
District 44 - Lombard
District 45 - Villa Park
District 48 - Salt Creek
District 53 - Butler (Oak Brook)
We love a school district that proudly proclaims on its
district "philosophy" webpage,
"The district's philosophy is conservative in its approach to developing
individual basic skills. The core academics are stressed, and special emphasis is
placed on serving all students' needs."
May 2000: Victory! District eliminates
Chicago math. In its place will be Harcourt, Brace
"Math Advantage" for grades K,1,3,4,5. For second grade
only, they will use McGraw Hill "Math in My World".
Grades 4 and 5 will use ability grouping. Junior high (grades
6,7,8) will use Glencoe "Pre Algebra" for all students,
with three ability groups. Most children will study
algebra from Holt, Rhinehart, Winston's "Algebra I"
in grades 7 and 8. Those children who don't pass an algebra readiness
test at the end of 6th grade will use Glencoe "Connections
and Application Course 2" in 7th grade.
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 58 - Downers Grove
It sure seems that the district must have been getting
pointed questions about its adoption of the fuzzy and notorious
Everyday Math program,
judging by the "New Math: Frequently Asked Questions" page on its own website!
A Downers Grove parent wrote to us:
I am very concerned for [my child's] education. Having read a
great deal about Everyday Math, and communicated with parents
and children in the program who are frustrated, I would like
to do something. It is beyond belief that so many can be
upset at the situation and yet be paralyzed.
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
From Wikipedia:
The Avery Coonley School is an independent school serving academically gifted students in
Downers Grove, Illinois, U.S.
Avery Coonley was founded in 1906 to promote the progressive educational
theories developed by John Dewey and other turn of the 20th century
philosophers, and was a nationally recognized model for progressive education well into
the 1940s.
District 60 - Maercker
District 61 - Darien
Darien uses Harcourt Math for grades 1-5,
Glencoe Mathematics Applications & Concepts for grades 6-8,
and Holt, Rinehart and Winston Algebra I for grade 8.
District 62 - Gower
District 63 - Cass
District 66 - Center Cass
In June 2008, the school board approved $70,000 for the purchase and adoption
of a replacement math program.
Be the first to tell us about math in this district!
In September 2008, a bookkeeper was sentenced to five years for embezzling $78,000 from District 66.
District 68 - Woodridge
District 86 - Hinsdale Twp High
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 88 - DuPage High School District (Addison Trail and Willowbrook)
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 89 - Glen Ellyn, Lombard and Wheaton
In February 2001, administrators convinced the school board
to approve their request for the fuzzy and chatty Math Trailblazers
program. Now kindergarteners can spend time counting how many
of them will fit on a carpet, second graders can "develop strategies"
for doing addition and subtraction (as it says on the D89 website),
and fourth graders can while away
their math class time watching bouncing balls, and everyone can
spend happy math class hours writing in journals.
Parents may wish to sign up for tutoring classes
or Kumon, or buy some good math workbooks to teach your child
at home.
Perhaps District 89 was embarassed by its previous excellent
ISAT math scores compared to its neighbor, District 41, and decided
to do something to reduce its advantage?
District 93 - Bloomingdale
It appears that Bloomingdale is another trend-follower in subjecting its children
to Everyday Math.
District 94 - West Chicago - Community High
This is Community High School District 94, which includes all or part of
West Chicago, Winfield, Warrenville, Wheaton and Carol Stream.
District 99 - Downers Grove - Community High
This is Community High School District 99.
District 108 - Lake Park High, Roselle
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
Cal Skinner's
blog provides
these additional insights:
"Another client was Roselle's Classrooms for Kids. The purpose is
obvious in the name of this tax hike committee for school district 108.
Unicom received $6,629.94 in this $27,891 campaign."
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 180 - Burr Ridge
In April 2003, the board approved
"middle school [grades 6-8] mathematics textbooks published by Holt and the algebra
textbook series from Prentice Hall."
In May 2006, the board
"approved the adoption of grades K-5 mathematics textbooks, Harcourt Math 2006
published by Harcourt School Publishers, at a cost of $43,588.96."
District 181 - Hinsdale
A parent reports:
I just found your web site! I think you are doing a great
service for the education of the kids and I applaud you. My kids
go to Illinois District 181 (Hinsdale) and they use
Everyday Math from K-5 and
UCSMP Transition Math from 6-8.
... more than 40% of parents pay tutors up to $50/ hour to teach
their kids properly...
Thanks for the update!
Some personnel notes:
- The superintendent of Hinsdale elementary schools is Mary
Curley, who previously became notorious among parents in Wheaton
for dumbing down the schools there and bringing in Everyday Math.
- To read more about James S. Ferguson, the principal of Hinsdale
Central, see page 3 of "Dumbing
Down Our Kids" by Charles Sykes. To set the tone for
the entire book, Sykes kicks off by recounting Ferguson's reign
as principal of Heritage High School in Littleton, Colorado.
In Littleton, Ferguson relentlessly worked to dummy-down that
school -- that is, until a grassroots group of back-to-basics
parents won control of the school board. As it happens, Amazon
provides those starting pages as a sample for the book, and you
can read about Ferguson in Littleton by
clicking
here.
- The principal at Oak School had been Jenny Wojcik, who previously
served as curriculum director in Kenilworth District 38, where
she ran a
Delphi committee to approve a "science" program rich in fluffy environmentalism
and mediocre in basic science content.
A group of district parents have organized as
The Community Advocate, primarily to monitor tax-hike issues in the district.
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
CUSD 200 - Wheaton Warrenville CUSD
Also see local organization:
Educate200:
"We advocate core principles of Economic Discipline, Community Accountability, and
Teaching Excellence for our District. ... Our goal is to raise the level of community involvement by providing
timely, relevant information from new perspectives on the key issues facing our District."
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
Cal Skinner's
blog provides
these additional insights:
"Wheaton's Friends of the Schools was also a client of Unicom Arc in 2002 and
2003. This tax hike committee as trying to 'pass a referendum on the April 2003
ballot for additions and renovations at both high schools in District 200.' It
cost $9,666.69 for consulting services. $541.69 was for 'travel -- lodging --
staff,' the committee's tax hike committee reported to the State Board of
Elections."
CUSD 201 - Westmont, Clarendon Hills, Downers Grove
Parents, find a Kumon center or buy some Saxon books, because
the notorious Everyday Math curriculum has been adopted for grades K-5
at the district's three elementary schools.
District 202 - Lisle CUSD
In February 2006, D202 adopted a new "District Strategic Plan." As far as we can figure it out,
the two pages on "Curriculum - Teaching/Learning" are pure jibberish.
A D202 webpage warns us,
"Our curriculum supports the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards"),
we couldn't find out much about math in the K-8 grades in this unit district.
Wow, with those items as build-up, we knew something awesome (as in "shock and awe") must be coming,
so we weren't surprised when we discovered these tidbits ...
(Click on those links for the gory details about those programs!)
In a word, RUN!!!
District 203 - Naperville CUSD
The good news: D203 is one of the few districts that provides a list of its major textbooks
on its website.
Here it is.
The bad news: Kids are subjected to an horrendous witches' brew of
TERC Investigations (K through 5)
and Connected Math (5 through 8),
plus MathThematics for "regular" math in grades 6-7. D203 even throws in some
Math Trailblazers in "advanced" 4th grade.
So, we now present a special service to the beleaguered parents in the uber-fuzzy Naperville school district.
Do what apparently vast numbers of other parents do: send your kid to an after-school tutoring
center to learn what they're missing in your expensive school district.
Here is a list of Kumon math centers within 10 miles of your city:
- Naperville Central, 25 E. Benton Ave., Naperville, IL 60540
- Naperville East, 2035 S. Washington Street, Naperville, IL 60565
- Woodridge, 2600 West 75th St, Woodridge, IL 60517
- Bolingbrook, 481 S. Weber Rd., Bolingbrook, IL 60490
- Aurora Southeast, 2206 Ogden Ave., Aurora, IL 60504
- Downers Grove, 5524 Lee Avenue, Downers Grove, IL 60515
- Wheaton, 616 W. Childs St., Wheaton, IL 60187
- Glen Ellyn, 456 Hillside Avenue, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137
A Naperville parent sent (May 2009) this message to us:
You described Naperville 203's horrid math program to a T. In our personal
experience (and in the opinion of hundreds of parents we know who are so angry
that they literally are swearing and crying about how bad it is and the negative
effect it is having on their kids' confidence/ability to do math), the program
should be trashed IMMEDIATELY!! ...
This is the tip of the iceberg. The spelling/vocabulary curriculum is even
worse. We are livid that we are paying such high taxes and in return getting
such poor curriculum, and that District 203 administrators continue their pattern
of denial, obfuscation and retaliation against kids whose parents have the
temerity to complain. Someone should band us all together to file a class action
lawsuit and demand change!
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 204 - Indian Prairie (Naperville, Aurora)
- According to the
Naperville
Sun for March 8, 2002, the district is adopting the infamous
Everyday Math (a.k.a. "Chicago Math") for students
in Kindergarten through 5th grade.
Astonishingly, district honchos point to St. Charles as a
"successful" implemetation -- a district roiled in
parent backlash! Lauren Scheffers, who closely watches ed developments
in the western suburbs, saw the district's mention of EM being
"well-received by teachers in the St. Charles district"
and wonders, "What about the parent reactions and
student test scores?"
Burdening the Indian Prairie district children with
Everyday Math
is going to cost taxpayers $753,500 for textbooks,
teacher resources and "staff development". And that's
a real number, not a new math fuzzy estimate!
One Naperville parent wrote to us with this observation:
"[My child's] grades
in math are mostly A's, but I feel her working knowledge in this subject is
shockingly below this grade level. There seems to be a strong emphasis on
art and the creative aspects of their education but the rudimentary, core
subjects (math, science & reading) are sorely lacking. I sometimes feel that
when she finishes in this school system, she will be well experienced in
making "Arts and Crafts" but she will lack the ability to make change!"
- In 2001, the political group created to support a tax-hike referendum
was given an eyebrow-raising $10,000 contribution by Laidlaw Transit (bus services)
and another $10,000 from MACOM Corporation (real estate developer).
In 2006, Laidlaw and Aramark Management Services (food services) each
contributed $5,000 to a D204 tax-hike organization,
and Gurtz Electric Company handed over $14,000.
District 205 - Elmhurst
The district adopted Everyday Math for its K-5 curriculum
in 1994. For a terrific commentary, see this article,
"If
Math Were A Color..." by Elmhurst parent Marcia Tsicouris,
as printed by the Elmhurst Press, Friday January 14, 2000. Marcia
says, "The message sent to my 3rd grader is that she's incapable
of doing math independently. Thanks to this program, essentially,
she is incapable. I have to re-teach each concept as it arises
(in addition to teaching basic math facts) because the U of C
sees no merit in mastery. ... By my calculations, Everyday Math
equates to educational malpractice!"
Parents and others in Elmhurst will be particularly intrigued to read through
Marcia Tsicouris' website,
"A Parent's Voice",
which collects a number of well-written POVs about the Elmhurst district
and education in general.
LAKE COUNTY
District 1 - Winthrop Harbor
District 3 - Beach Park
It's all spelled out on
one simple chart here on the district's website: a whole litany
of reasons why you should avoid Beach Park schools like the plague:
"... collaboration, diversity, differentiation, Multiple Intelligences,
Constructivism, Technology,
Engaged Learning, Brain Research, Lifelong Learning,
Authentic Assessment ..."
Yup, another winner for our Truth-In-Labelling award. Don't say you weren't warned!
District 6 - Zion
In 2006, the district reviewed math curricula, and selected
Harcourt Math 2007 for its K-6 program.
One website says that the Harcourt program
"is designed to build understanding of mathematical concepts,
skill proficiency, problem solving facility and logical reasoning.
Classroom instruction begins with clear visual representations and
concrete experiences, moves to guided practice, and then provides
independent practice to develop proficiency."
District 24 - Millburn
District 33 - Emmons
The Emmons district descended into the dark world of Everyday Math in 1999.
A 2006 Daily Herald story quotes Emmons Superintendent Matt Tabar,
"This is such a different approach that even now some parents have questions."
And wait until you see the kind of answers those parents get!
Not many schools are this frank about what students will not get at their establishment:
"Repetitive and rote learning activities such as math facts drill, spelling words,
and memorization of key facts are done at home."
-- Emmons School Parent/Student Handbook, 2004-2005
In other words, cough up your taxes, but you'll still need to homeschool to make sure that math basics are
covered!
Lennie Jarratt writes about Emmons D33 in this page on his
Education Matters website.
District 34 - Antioch
-
D34 decided in July 2006
to stick its kids with Everyday Math.
According to a report in the Daily Herald,
"the new curriculum will cost District 34 about $65,000 extra the first year and about $40,000 the following years"
plus "Administrators also will ask the school board to approve a new position for a math lab aide."
In a shocking and dismaying display of how blind trust in the educrats
trumps even one's children's lousy experience,
the Daily Herald reported,
"I've had bad experiences with Everyday Mathematics, but the presentation we saw
earlier made me feel very comfortable," said board member Sue Buckley. "I want to
be the first to endorse it."
After the meeting, Buckley said her children had Everyday Mathematics while her
family was living in a different state. She said she is confident the teachers in
District 34 know what they are doing and will present the new mathematics program
so it benefits all students.
We are appalled!!! This woman SAW with her own eyes what Everyday Math did to her own children, but has such great
faith in the Big Ed monopolists that she's willing to subject your kids to the same horror!
What on earth are you people putting in the water up there in Antioch?
-
This latest disaster is on top of a move (according to D34's website) to
"Add a Director of Curriculum and Instruction to the
district's administrative team by the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year to lend
significant support to efforts to improve curriculum, instruction, and assessment
throughout the district." Yup, now that the compliant taxpayers have raised their own taxes,
D34 is able to hire curriculum police to really get the fuzzy math bandwagon rolling!
- September 4, 2007: D34 has now contracted for professional help in selling a nice image of itself to the citizenry.
The D34 board approved a contract with UNICOM-ARC, a slick public relations outfit that has masterminded
PR campaigns for many local districts, usually to soften up a community prior to a tax referendum effort.
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm School Perceptions, LLC, for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about School Perceptions, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
-
Lennie Jarratt writes about Antioch D34's fall to fuzzy math in this page on his
Education Matters website.
District 36 - Grass Lake
District 37 - Gavin (Ingleside)
Sad to say, D37 uses Everyday Math.
But there's some good news as well: The district had phonics expert Susan Hall
lead teacher sessions on the use of DIBELS testing in reading instruction.
District 38 - Big Hollow
District 41 - Lake Villa
In its various School Improvement Plans, the district says that
"The Everyday Math program had been in place for eight years."
And how has Everyday Math performed for the district?
Let's let the district say, in its own words (because you can't make up this kind of stuff):
Summaries of Data for Independent Variables
Second Grade
Through the analysis of standardized test scores we have determined that
second grade students have shown strength in the areas of algebra and analytical
methods as well as geometry.
Whereas knowledge and use of numbers is an area for needed improvement. ...
Third Grade
Through our analysis of standardized tests we have determined that third grade has
showed weakness in knowledge and use of numbers.
Just mull that over: "We have determined that third grade has
showed weakness in knowledge and use of numbers." YIKES!
But fear not, parents, because the district says,
"Areas in the Everyday Math program needing
improvement have been addressed with the adoption of a revised program."
Yessiree, Everyday Math is dead, long live Everyday Math.
Just trust the wise professionals.
District 46 - Grayslake
Districts 50 and 79 - Prairie Crossing Charter School
Prairie Crossing Charter School has a charter to serve
families in Woodland District 50 and and Fremont District 79.
Unfortunately, PCCS serves up a mixed bag:
it is a small, warm and welcoming school that provides all-around
encouragement for its children. It has one of the most detailed
curriculum statements that we've ever seen online.
Nonetheless, the curriculum is nowhere near as vivid and challenging
as that of Core Knowledge (which was the subject of a
referendum
in Grayslake).
PCCS describes
their school as an "experientially-based program" of
"hands-on learning."
Their website bluntly describes their philosophy:
"Prairie Crossing Charter School follows a constructivist approach
to teaching students." Can't be more clear than that! Caveat emptor.
And here's a scary novelty: As if mangling history,
geography, civics and other topics into the soup known
as "social studies" weren't bad enough
(see more here about that)
PCCS goes a step further by mutilating social studies and science
together into a mish-mash they call "Integrated Units" largely
oriented around environmentalism.
Notice the relative priority they assign to
the topics in this sentence from their statement of curriculum for
their fourth and fifth graders:
"Within this study, the students will be looking at the
definition of environmental science and the history of environmentalism.
They will also be studying habitats and biomes of the world,
natural resources, alien species introductions, agriculture,
energy, pollution, and the effects of human population on our environment.
Additionally, the students will study the scientific
method, geography, geology, and the structure and operation of
our national government."
Omigosh, that sounds horrible! Well, to each their own. That's
what choice is all about.
In September 2003 officials from the school districts served by PCCS
argued their case before the state bureaucracy to close PCCS by
not renewing its charter. The charter law in Illinois
was designed to permit charters in the one district that welcomed them
(the city of Chicago) while putting any other charter operators or applicants
anywhere else through never-ending hoops, trying to keep them out of business.
(See our page devoted to
charter school issues in Illinois.)
While PCCS may not be our cup of tea, we're all in
favor of choices made by parents
for their own children -- as long as parents
seeking challenging academics, research-based practices and a
teacher-centered curriculum have a choice, too.
Now let's turn back to math:
As if to prove their dedication
to progressivist trends, as of February 2000 the leaders of Prairie Crossing were
even going so far as to consider the use of MathLand,
one of the most despised of all fuzzy math programs.
Instead, they wound up adopting the infamous
Everyday Math.
But then they turned course again, and chose another of the most reviled fuzzy math programs,
Investigations in Number, Data, and Space, also known as "TERC".
Jiminy Christmas, Prairie Crossing! It takes real guts to embrace a math program
that gets comments like these on a university website intended to support that program:
- "I am shocked that parents allow this curriculum."
- "I'm just stunned and thoroughly disappointed."
- "Our school district has implemented TERC math this year.
The parents have flipped out over this. ... The parents of my district ...
have gone as far as to retain a lawyer."
- "I have heard nothing good from any parent or teacher that I have spoken to.
The teachers are hesitant to say anything because of politics..."
- "I believe that Investigations math only confuses a lot of students, and isn't helpful."
One posted comment on that university site reported,
We have many parents who are
pulling their children out of public school
and putting them into charter schools, where Investigations math is not being taught,
primarily for that reason.
We can't help but wonder if any parents in Grayslake have taken
the opposite path, pulling their kids from this charter and returning to the conventional
public school, in order to avoid TERC.
Follow the link to Investigations in Number, Data, and Space
for much more about this program.
District 50 - Gurnee & Gages Lake - Woodland
Also see: Click here for details
on Prairie Crossing Charter School
The district considered adding the fuzzy
Everyday Math program, and instead adopted
the equally fuzzy Math Trailblazers program.
So, in earlier grades the district now
claims to use a mix
of Math Trailblazers along with Houghton Mifflin Mathematics
in the early grades, and then
a mix of McDougall Littell's Passport to Mathematics and
the dreaded Connected Math Project for higher grades.
D50's dedication to theory over substance
is nowhere more evident than in their gorgeous
Strategic Direction, a 6.6 megabyte ode to constructivist platitudes.
With so much going a-kilter, how can you set a school district
back on track? By restoring subtantive math and content-centered instruction?
Of course not! Woodland chose to hire paid professional PR consultants!
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
Is there any wonder why this district has been so unsuccessful in
gaining parent support for tax hikes?
District 56 - Gurnee
Whew! Though few school districts can be called "generous" in the amount of curriculum info
that put on their websites, Gurnee's is surprisingly anemic. Can anyone tell us more
about the math programs and curricula in use in D56?
But the bigger worry now is the elaborate public relations stunt that D56 is conducting
with the help of big-league PR firm, UNICOM-ARC. A newspaper article reports,
The process of public engagement is being orchestrated with the help of St.
Louis-based Unicom-Arc. The district is paying the public relations firm $40,000
to consult for one year.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC and how school districts have been turning to slick public relations efforts,
read these pages on our website:
So, here's what D56 has been doing:
In 2005-06, D56 (with the professional PR guidance of UNICOM-ARC) organized an
elaborate series of Delphi groups
(under the name of "VOICES") supposedly so that community members
could develop "recommendations" to the district on such issues as finances, curriculum and class size.
Right.
If you're in Gurnee, you owe it to yourself and your children to spend a little time
learning about how these Delphi groups are used by school districts.
Meanwhile, on the
Campaign Disclosures website of the Illinois State Board of Elections,
we learn that Graphtech Systems, a company that sells whizzy computer stuff to
bedazzled school districts, gave a $500 "donation" in January 2004 to a "Citizens for District 56 Schools"
group that pushed for big tax hikes. Let's see if we can connect the dots:
Donate to campaign to sell referendum, raise higher taxes, get more spending, more purchases
from companies that sell whizzy computer stuff.
District 60 - Waukegan
District 65 - Lake Bluff
A parent reported the bad news, "District 65 (Lake Bluff) uses
Everyday Math
in elementary classes."
District 67 - Lake Forest
Here's what one parent posted on our comments page:
[Lake Forest] uses [Chicago math] in grades K-6 and as a
result, you can't get your kid into the Kumon classes around here!
When will they learn?
There's no place better to confirm your fears of District 67's devotion
to unrepentent progressivism than on its own web site:
District 67 Curriculum statement.
District 68 - Oak Grove
First, the good news, from the district website:
We use the Silver Burdett & Ginn math program. It is a solid program that builds
on the skills your child learned in Kindergarten. In First Grade your child will
work in a math workbook. We also supplement and enrich with a variety of other
materials.
And now the very bad news:
The first through third grade classes use Patricia Cunningham's 4 Blocks Program
as the core of the language arts curriculum.
(Read more about the "Four Blocks" system of Whole Language
reading instruction at this page.)
District 70 - Libertyville
Some parents at Rockland School are understandably protesting
the use of the fuzzy Everyday Mathematics program there,
which was adopted in 1997.
A
July 13, 2000 article in the Pioneer Press newspapers
reports:
"Chuck and Sandy Wisniewski, whose daughter is a fifth-grader at
Libertyville Elementary District 70's Rockland School, have had
similar problems [involving mastery of basic math
skills]. The Wisniewskis said their daughter and son have
both experienced difficulties with math.
The Wisniewskis ... consider the culprit is the new math program,
Everyday Mathematics, used at many area school districts.
'Our daughter and our son have continually struggled with this program,'
the Wisniewskis wrote in a letter to the district."
- Also:
Parents air views on Everyday Math
by Korrina Gron, Pioneer Press, October 26, 2000.
"Monica Feld of Vernon Hills said her child, a student in Hawthorn Elementary
District 73, has been seeing a math tutor for two years because the Everyday Math
program being used in the district fails to teach the basics.
Around 40 people attended a meeting of Concerned Parents for Quality Education
last week to discuss these and other concerns about a math program which some say
is inadequate in teaching children about math. ...
After talking to around 80 parents who were concerned or confused about the math program,
a Libertyville Elementary District 70 parent, Sandy Kamen Wisniewski,
and District 73 parent Wendy Nicholson, decided to form Concerned Parents for Quality Education
to help give parents a voice about this and other issues. ...
A standing-room-only crowd filled a room at the Libertyville Civic Center last week ...
Many parents questioned the program's lack of emphasis on basic math skills and mastery ..."
- One of our Loopers sent us an article from the Libertyville Review of January 18, 2007, reporting on a new reading program
at Adler School in D70, which said,
Each student reads through a short story for one minute, underlining difficult
words. The student then reads through the story along with a narrator who reads
the same story on CD. In the last step, the student reads through the story again
alone. The program is designed so that the student will improve after each reading ...
That's rote memorization, not reading!
Liberty Hall Charter School
D70 in Libertyville stands out as a sickening example how far
educrats will go to preserve their monopoly power in the face of parent demands.
In 1997, a parent group organized as the Liberty Hall Charter School Foundation launched a valiant
effort to create a charter school in D70 Libertyville. The school would have
provided Libertyville families an option for a full content-rich
Core Knowledge curriculum, Direct Instruction phonics,
traditional math, character education, fewer group projects and classic literature. Sadly,
the D70 school board decided you should not be allowed to have this choice.
After years of arduous battles, the district managed to crush the movement for a better option
for Libertyville children. The superintendent at the time, Mark Friedman, is still at the
helm now (as of 2006), drawing his $200,000+ salary and, no doubt, savoring the victory that
prevented Libertyville parents from exercising liberty in choosing the right education for their kids.
District 72 - Rondout
Rondout was the location of the biggest train robbery in U.S. history, back in 1924.
Today, D72 preserves that reputation by being the most lavishly
funded school district (per student) in the entire state of Illinois,
spending an astounding $23,800 per student per year!
And what do parents and taxpayers get for that? Well, they get teacher strike threats, despite having the second-highest
pay scale in Lake County (according to the Daily Herald, February 11, 2006).
They also get to witness their children struggling with the infamous
Everyday Math program. But that's just scratching the surface: a "Curriculum Night 2006"
featured a presentation loaded with the incomprehensible gobblydegook of the education theorists,
but hardly anything on what Rondout proposes that kids would actually learn.
Thank you, Rondout, for your stunning demonstration that spending a fortune
does not guarantee a rich education!
District 73 - Hawthorne (Vernon Hills)
Look out parents, because the district uses the
Everyday Math program.
-
Parents air views on Everyday Math
by Korrina Gron, Pioneer Press, October 26, 2000.
"Monica Feld of Vernon Hills said her child, a student in Hawthorn Elementary
District 73, has been seeing a math tutor for two years because the Everyday Math
program being used in the district fails to teach the basics.
Around 40 people attended a meeting of Concerned Parents for Quality Education
last week to discuss these and other concerns about a math program which some say
is inadequate in teaching children about math. ...
After talking to around 80 parents who were concerned or confused about the math program,
a Libertyville Elementary District 70 parent, Sandy Kamen Wisniewski,
and District 73 parent Wendy Nicholson, decided to form Concerned Parents for Quality Education
to help give parents a voice about this and other issues. ...
A standing-room-only crowd filled a room at the Libertyville Civic Center last week ...
Many parents questioned the program's lack of emphasis on basic math skills and mastery ..."
District 75 - Mundelein
A
July 13, 2000 article in the Pioneer Press newspapers
reports:
"Vicki Kennedy said her oldest son did not have a mastery of basic math
skills when he finished elementary school in Mundelein Elementary District 75.
'Initially, we were totally unaware that our child was having problems in math,'
said Kennedy. And he is still struggling, she said, although he was
tutored before leaving elementary school.
The Kennedys ... consider the culprit is the new math program,
Everyday Mathematics, used at many area school districts."
And then, victory!
Everyday Math Program Out
by Korinna Grom, Pioneer Press, July 13, 2000
"After using the Everyday Math program for five years, Mundelein Elementary District 75
has decided not to use it once school starts this fall.
The board voted June 26 to purchase textbooks for a new math program,
Houghton Mifflin Math Central, which will be implemented for the 2000-01 school year. ...
Some parents [said] children aren't learning basic math skills with the Everyday Math program.
They also feel that the program does not meet the needs of advanced students or those who need extra help.
Teachers found the program to be time-consuming. [Superintendent] Partridge said the program was also expensive to implement."
Jettisoning Everyday Math proved to be a darn good idea:
Eighth Grade Math Scores Disappoint
by Korinna Grom, Mundelein Review (Pioneer Press), November 2, 2000.
"... District 75 ... Forty-five percent of eighth-graders in Mundelein Elementary District 75 scored
below state standards or at the academic warning level in math this year ..."
Meanwhile, an improved customer service attitude may be needed over at the high school:
Mundelein Superintendent Apologizes For Calling Activists 'Goofballs'
by Russell Lissau, Daily Herald, May 13, 2005
District 76 - Diamond Lake (Mundelein)
Aaaacckkk! Reports are that West Oak School has adopted the dreaded
Connected Math Program
as an "accelerated" math curriculum for sixth through eighth grades.
Also see:
-
Illinois School District's Success Earns Penalty Threat
by Don Soifer, March 11, 2008.
"Illinois state law requires school districts to offer bilingual education when at least 20 English learners with the same native language are enrolled. The results have left much to be desired ...
Five years ago, educators in one Illinois school district, Diamond Lake District #76, decided to try something different. They implemented their own English-based, or sheltered English, program of instruction.
The results have been impressive."
District 79 - Fremont (Mundelein)
Also see: Click here for details
on Prairie Crossing Charter School
Math Their Way
was piloted, then rejected.
In mid-1998, the district instead approved and budgeted the
Math Central program from Houghton-Mifflin. Some excerpts
from the Mundelein Review report (May 7, 1998):
... Also known as "Chicago Math," the "Math
Their Way" program does not stress day to day facts, such
as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. ... The
curriculum committee decided that while Chicago Math does an
exceptional job with meaning, pupils take a long time to come
to that understanding and usually there isn't time to finish
the cycle in one year, said Lynette Zimmer, principal of Fremont
Elementary School. That's partly because pupils must master one
concept before moving onto another in Chicago Math, which moves
from the concrete to the abstract, Eggert said.
While it's important at a young age to understand what 4 x
5 means, the committee decided that memorizing tables would speed
the math process. "It's like when kids say the Pledge of
Allegiance," Zimmer said. "In the beginning, they don't
understand what it means. "But as they get older, they learn.
Math Central has tons of games for kids to help them learn the
math facts in a number of ways that are rewarding."
The University of Chicago series was piloted in the district,
but it confounded not only parents but also teachers and pupils.
Both parents and teachers were unfamiliar with the program's
new terms and approaches to concepts, which made it difficult
to help students fully, Zimmer said. "You have to become
quite invested in Chicago Math," she said. "It takes
extensive training for the program to be used correctly."
When pupils had questions on their homework, parents weren't
quite sure what the assignment was asking for because of the
vocabulary used, Zimmer said.
While Math Central isn't ideal (it uses attention-fighting
graphics and places too much emphasis on
spiraling, a.k.a., the death spiral), it's nice
to see the district recognize the devastating problems with Chicago
math.
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
Cal Skinner's
blog provides
these additional insights:
"The Fremont School District 79 tax hike committee (called Bright Futures on the
State Board of Elections web site) paid big money to Unicom in 2001.
There's a total of $26, 895.19 in three payments from late March through August, 2001."
District 95 - Lake Zurich, Hawthorn Woods, Palatine
Can anyone tell us about math in D95?
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 96 - Kildeer-Countryside (Buffalo Grove, Long Grove)
Confuse the kids early with a foundation in the infamous Chicago Math:
Parents, are you confused, bewildered, and angry by the goofy
Everyday Math program? Well, one of your candidates for
your school board knows why -- it's your fault. Don Shannon
was quoted by the Pioneer Press saying, "Parents are incredibly
confused. Parents need to be re-educated to be able to help their
kids." Well, we'll be lenient on poor Don -- the article
also says he's a veteran of several school
committees.
- The folks at District 96 have
unintentionally performed a public service by creating a set of
Quicktime movies to illustrate some of the methods taught in the
notorious Everyday Math program.
Take a look!
In particular, watch with amazement as we see how fourth graders are
taught to do 352 times 241 using the Everyday Math method of
"lattice multiplication".
Then, after pausing for reflection, go on to see how fifth graders
are instructed to figure out how 1876 crayons can be put in boxes of
64 each -- not by doing a normal division, but rather by
torturing themselves with something that Everyday Math calls
"Partial-Quotients with Double Digits".
It's hard to see how anyone can get out of this class without a lifelong dependency
on calculators.
District 102 - Aptakis-Trip
Confuse the kids early with a foundation in the infamous Chicago
Math:
District 103 - Lincolnshire-Prairieview
Well, this is confusing.
It appears that D103 is thoroughly committed to fuzzy math,
even if that means they have to keep on plowing through the worst of the worst.
We had information that D103's math program used this fuzz-fest
smorgasbord:
Later information advised us that in May 2004, the district announced that
"Grades K, and 3-5 will use the Trailblazers program from
Kendall Hunt. Grades 1 and 2 will remain using the Everyday Math program."
Parents, if your kids are thoroughly confused after bouncing around
all of these different fuzzy programs, you'll want to pick up some
Saxon books or sign up
at a Kumon center!
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 106 - Bannockburn
At last report, the district uses the merely mediocre
Scott Foresman Addison Wesley "Math"
series.
As one of its goals for 2005-2006, the district listed
"to assess the need for a new math program in grades kindergarten
through fifth grade." In January 2006, the Board minutes report,
"There will be a meeting with lower school teachers to determine which [math]
programs will be piloted this year."
Kevin Killion visited Bannockburn in 2000, and was
very impressed with the content of their science program.
Also, a note from the district in 2005 indicates that four staffers were trained
in the use of DIBELS for assessment of phonics skills, another good sign.
District 109 - Deerfield
Good news and bad news: As of May 2001, the Deerfield school
board is ditching the infamous Everyday Math program,
but the replacement isn't better, only trendier. The curriculum
czar Ina Kerrigan claimed, "The controversy has nothing
to do with it" according to a story in the Deerfield Review.
A 24-member "committee" consisting of administrators,
teachers and parents, but firmly run and directed by the school,
"decided" that they needed a different fuzzy math program
than the one they had. (To understand why we put "committee"
and "decide" in quotes, read our article on
school
committees.)
So, Everyday Math is out. Now, kids, get ready to start
writing and "reflecting", because your school board
just decided to stick you with Math Trailblazers instead for
grades 1 through 5, and then compounding the damage with
Connected Math in grades 6-8.
Ina Kerrigan also said that while both Everyday Math
and Math Trailblazers
use the "spiraling"
method the Trailblazer's spiral is less "steep".
Spiraling is one of those educational viruses that are so popular
in today's faddish math books. Critics call it the death spiral,
because it gives average children so many wonderful opportunities
to repeatedly experience total failure. I guess it would be
too much to think that anyone would just consider eliminating
that which does not work, and replacing it with a program whose
goal is mastery, rather than repeated failure.
Fortunately, there are several after-school tutoring programs
and well-supplied teacher stores in the area, so many parents
will be able to continue to teach their children math. (But,
gee, isn't that why they collect tax dollars from you, so they can teach your kids?)
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
- Also see:
A Mom's Plea: Don't Make Me Do School Projects!
By Janine Wood (a Mom in Deerfield, IL), Christian Science Monitor
November 17, 2006.
District 112 - North Shore (Highland Park)
A parent reports: "At Ravinia School in Highland Park they
use Math Central by Houghton-Mifflin."
The district website has a 66-page guide to its objectives in
mathematics. The guide does not discuss specific programs used.
While you're checking your property tax bills, you may want to reflect on how
the district purchased 795 new computers
in 2002 alone (Chicago Tribune, Apr 17, 2002).
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 113 - Highland Park Township HS
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 114 - Fox Lake
The Fox Lake website may set some kind of dubious standard for its
high ratio of graphic pizazz versus actual usable content.
Can anyone tell us
what is happening in math in this district?
CUSD 116 - Round Lake
District 117 - Antioch Community HS
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 118 - Wauconda
Starting with the 2002-03 school year, it appears that Wauconda
is now using the mediocre Scott Foresman Addison Wesley Math series for
Kindergarten through 5th grade. We welcome additional information.
District 125 - Adlai E. Stevenson HS
Stevenson in the news:
-
Officials Try To Reform Complicated State-Funded Pension System
by Jim Muir and Caleb Hale, Southern Illinoisan, August 21, 2005.
"There are numerous loopholes state employees can and do use to pad retirement benefits.
Jon Bauman, executive director of the State Teacher's Retirement
System, recently discussed a retirement package that will pay James
Hintz, a financial officer at Adlai Stevenson High School, more than
$200,000 annually as long as he lives. Hintz received end-of-career
stipends and pay raises of more than $100,000, which ballooned his
final year salary that is used to determine his pension benefits.
Bauman called the retirement package 'legal, but devious.'
In Mr. Hintz's case, the district has taken a small opening and
driven a truck right through it,' Bauman said. ..."
- Editorial, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Sun-Times, June 1, 2005:
"When you read about James Hintz's salary and pension benefits you
can only feel one way: mind-blowing outrage. Hintz, in charge of
finance for Adlai Stevenson Township High School District 125, has
had his salary sweetened by so much over the last four years that he
is going to leave his job next month with an enviable $200,000 yearly
pension.
"And you, Illinois taxpayers, are on the hook for it...
"Schools need to start acting like businesses because their
stockholders -- the taxpayers -- are wondering how their money is
being spent. It should go into the needy classroom, not into rich
end-of-career salary hikes and 35 years worth of sick days."
- Daily Herald, March 9, 2002
"The Stevenson High School District in Lincolnshire is denying accusations it
improperly prodded two companies into contributing $50,000 to a private group
seeking passage of a referendum.
"Both corporations were negotiating new deals with District 125 late last year
when the donations were made to the Stevenson Referendum Campaign Committee. The
group is promoting the district's education fund tax rate increase referendum on
the March 19 ballot.
"Rolling Meadows-based Pepsi Americas gave $25,000 to the referendum committee
that initially was part of a $60,000 contribution earmarked for District 125's
student activities fund. Pepsi topped Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Chicago for a new
contract to provide soft-drinks to the district.
"Laidlaw Transit Inc. of Naperville provided $25,000 to the referendum group
before it topped Skokie-based Alltown Bus Service for a $1.5 million busing deal
at Stevenson. ..."
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 127 - Grayslake Community HS
Also see:
- For the inside scoop on what's happening in D127, see the independent website
D127 News
District 128 - Community HS (Libertyville & Vernon Hills)
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
CUSD 187 - North Chicago
D187 has a fairly decent slate of math textbooks:
- K-5: Houghton Mifflin Mathematics
- 6 and 7: Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Middle School Math
- 7th grade gifted math class and regular 8th grade math: Glencoe Pre-Algebra
- 8th grade gifted math: Glencoe Algebra I
D187 receives $7 million in annual financial aid from the federal government
for the 30 percent of the children in its schools who come from military families,
mostly from the Great Lakes naval base.
It's a good thing that the math program is reasonable, since
military families living on base housing can't easily move so
that their kids can
attend other schools. Rep. Mark Kirk has worked tenaciously
to secure "impact aid" for government school districts. But Kirk
insists that such funds flow into district coffers,
regardless of whether parents want that school for their children or not.
He has consistently rebuffed
all suggestions that such aid should go to military families
in the form of vouchers, redeemable at any school.
Shouldn't those who have volunteered to defend our country
have the right to choose schools for their own children?
District 220 - Barrington
We thought there was good news to report with the Barrington district
dumping
Everyday Math
according to a Pioneer Press report:
Everyday Math was
piloted in some Barrington elementary schools.
But a more traditional curriculum published by Addison-Wesley
was later adopted, said Jennifer Hay, staff development/mathematics
coordinator in Barrington Unit School District 220. "One
of the main things that the teachers like about Addison-Wesley
is it covers computation very well," Hay said. "That's
one of the drawbacks to the University of Chicago program."
But now, a Barrington parent has advised us (2006) that celebrations
are premature:
You have listed that Barrington has dumped Everyday Math. This is NOT true.
[My child's school], along with at least
one other elementary school in the district (that I have personally
confirmed--the other schools may be using it as well) are using the
Everyday Math curriculum.
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
Cal Skinner's
blog provides
these additional insights:
"Unicom got $12,980.18 from Barrington tax hike committee Protect Our Investment in Education.
It stated it wanted to 'inform citizens and encourage support of school referenda in District 220.'"
Also see:
Local citizens' group:
Barrington Enlightened Taxpayer Association (BETA).
McHENRY COUNTY
District 2 - Nippersink (Richmond, Spring Grove)
District 3 - Fox River Grove
Here's what D3's website lists as their math textbooks:
1, 2, 3, 4: Mathematics, McGraw-Hill, 2002
5: Mathematics, Houghton Mifflin
6: McDougal Littell Middle School Math
6 Course 1
7 Course 2
8, Pre-Algebra, regular math curriculum:
Passport to Algebra and Geometry, McDougal Littell, 2003
8, Accelerated Math Curriculum:
Algebra 1, McDougal Littell, 2001
How nice to see a district spell it out so clearly, and not bad stuff either!
District 12 - Johnsburg
District 15 - McHenry
D15 uses a fairly traditional-style math series from
Silver Burdett Ginn for grades K-6, and a Scott Foresman
program (which?) for 6 through 8.
Prentice Hall's Algebra Tools For Changing the World
is also used in 8th grade.
The district website has a fairly complete
listing of all textbooks
in all grades for all subjects. We send our congratulations!
District 18 - Riley (Marengo)
Here is a very promising statement indeed, from Riley's "curriculum
statement" on its website. We've added a little bolding for emphasis:
Reading is taught using the materials from the Houghton Mifflin and Merrill
publishers with major emphasis on phonics in the lower grades. Math (fourth
through eighth) and science are presented with the Scott Foresman series; math
first, second, and third, Saxon series. In language arts, Holt and SRA are used.
Social studies implements the Prentice Hall and Silver Burdett program. Writing
uses Zaner/Blozer. Spelling is taught using Modern Learning Press for first and
second grades, National Standard List for third, fourth, fifth, seventh and
eighth grades and Scott Foresman for sixth grade. Steck/Vaughn phonics is used as
well as SRA reading.
Sounds great, Riley!
District 19 - Alden-Hebron
A Tribune article ("Change about to plow through tranquil town", November 3, 2006) said,
"With only three schools, officials in Alden-Hebron
Community Consolidated District 19 are talking about how many
schools they will need to build to handle the influx of new students."
If D19 took a good look at what D300 in Carpentersville did, the number of
new schools they need to build could be as low as ZERO. Simply invite
proposals for new charter schools, and encourage all those new developers
to work with charter operators in building the needed facilities.
District 26 - Cary
A parent writes to us (2005),
Last year, our K-8 district adopted
Everyday Math for grades K-5. Ugh.
They even neglected to purchase the materials for 5.
The so-called Math Task Force is presenting the
Connected Math Program
to the D-26 Board o' Education on Oct 17, 2005,
and will be asking for adoption at our November board meeting.
As predicted, at the October 17th meeting, a plan was proposed to install
fuzzy
Everyday Math for K through 5th grade, and the even fuzzier
Connected Math for 6th through 8th.
So, what's been the result? Read what a parent told us (2007):
Everyday Math is used in this district. What a disservice to our children to be
subjected to this type of instruction or lack thereof. I now know that I am not
alone or wrong in feeling angry and frustrated with this school district for the
past three years. My child ... seems no further along in math
than he was [last year]. ... Wow, and
teachers admit this curriculum doesn't provide basic math principles. What's the
first thing you do when building a house ... you put a strong foundation
in place or it crumbles to the ground. Thank you to Illinois Loop for proving
to me that Everyday Math IS setting my child up for failure and that I can not
sit idly by and let that happen.
District 36 - Harrison (Wonder Lake)
We have no information as yet about this single-school district on the eastern side
of Wonder Lake.
District 46 - Prairie Grove
In November 2004 the district board notes reported:
The Harcourt Math Series is being used in grades K-5 and instructional
time has been increased. A new math series was also introduced at the junior high level.
District 47 - Crystal Lake
Parents, you can't say you you weren't warned! From the district website:
"Crystal Lake District 47 uses
Everyday Mathematics
... and Connected Mathematics
... as our major sources for our mathematical instruction." Caveat emptor!
In May 1996, the district adopted the notorious Everyday Math (a.k.a. "Chicago Math") program
for Kindergarten through 5th grade. In later grades, math classes are tracked, with many kids
subjected to the dreadful Prentice Hall "Connected Math Project"
(which has caused huge parental outcries in
other communities around the country). (An "Extended Curriculum" group uses the much
better "Gateways to Algebra and Geometry" from McDougal-Littell.)
A full report on the district's math program
is provided on the district's website and is available
as a PDF document.
Here's what one parent told us:
I am furious. My [child] has just moved from 5th grade into 6th grade where they
have fully implemented
Connected Math into the middle school curriculum. The
homework is totally confusing and tedious and in many cases the answer key that
the teachers have is wrong. I am in a constant battle discussing answers with
the teacher. It aggrevates me that they ask a child to write their opinion about
a problem, explain their answer and then we find out that their opinion was not
quite what the answer key says is the correct answer. ... At a parent
meeting with the curriculum director and she was very unprepared for this
meeting. She struggled to explain some of the concepts and did not have handouts
available to explain the purpose or end point of various so called math
concepts/problem. Plus she did not know the difference between product and
factor while explaining a math game that the kids will be using. ...
You would think that the district would send someone bright and articulate to help smooth over
parents' questions and fears about this garbage program. Also, she said that all
the good school districts in the area including Barrington and many North Shore
districts have already adopted
Connected Math and that they all think it is
wonderful. Is this true? ... Am I way off base about this...everyone
I have talked to thinks this program is terrible and their kids are struggling.
Thank you for listening to my ranting and raving.
The Northwest Herald
reported (November 7, 2006),
Foes of D-47 Plan Applauded
by Brenda Schory, Northwest Herald
"...Parents, such as James Brachmann said the problem was not more minutes in math
instruction, it was the type of curriculum, Connected Mathematics, that the
district was using.
'Are you aware of the national controversy throughout the country where parents,
teachers and mathematicians and scientists have been working to expose the
substantial defects in this fuzzy math program,' Brachmann asked.
'Some school districts have dropped the program altogether,' he said. 'As the
parent of struggling math students, do you really think that 20 more minutes of
this substandard math program is going to make a difference?'"
A follow-up in the Northwest Herald reported (November 20, 2006),
Do new studies add up?
by Brenda Schory, Northwest Herald
"...parents at Crystal Lake District 47 object to
Connected Math being taught in
their schools ... Critics of District 47's proposal, such as parent David Boesen
of Crystal Lake, say the curriculum is the problem, not the number of minutes
allotted for it.
'Why was this implemented in the first place?' Boesen said. ...
Another parent, James Brachmann, said Connected Math had spawned controversy
elsewhere, such as Penfield Central School in New York, where parents petitioned
the school board for more traditional math instruction."
While D47 is committed to legendary fuzzy math programs
Everyday Math
and
Connected Math,
their website math document does have
a few elements that are a least a bit encouraging. It includes 4th grade goals of "Mastery of addition and subtraction facts"
and "Memorize multiplication facts" and a 5th grade goal of "Multiplication facts (for mastery)."
This is late for these skills, but it's better than expectations at some schools that subject
their kids to Chicago Math.
Another wee hopeful sign is a mention on this district report that
says, "Teachers will use calculators to enhance and support classroom
instruction not as a replacement for mastery of basic skills."
The district offers
similar reports for the other subjects as well. We commend them for that, as very few
schools offer more than the barest glimmer of what parents can expect their children
to be doing. But that doesn't mean that the detail they provide will make all parents
happy. D47's
PDF report on their reading program, for example, is heavy on Whole Language-inspired
rhetoric and has little or no reference to real, direct, explicit phonics instruction.
Parents who find that their children do not seem to be reading up to par may wish to investigate
supplemental programs outside of school.
- In 2007, the district was promoting a scheme featuring such abominations as merging
language arts and social studies into a unified fuzz-fest mish-mosh (as if merging history, geography and civics
into the soup called social studies wasn't bad enough!)
The district also was planning to cut some music and language programs in order to give more minutes
to math its fuzzy-wuzzy math program. D47 seems to be saying, if a program isn't working, let's do more of it.
Also see:
Local citizens' group:
Encore Means More.
connected
District 50 - Harvard
District 165 - Marengo-Union
We have received no information about math in this district,
and the district's own website is extraordinarily thin on information.
Can anyone tell us more?
District 157 - Richmond-Burton Comm High
District 158 - Huntley
District 200 - Woodstock
We have one report that this district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts. Follow the link to learn more about how that works!
KANE COUNTY
District U-46 - Elgin
The district, a mammoth governmental entity that sprawls across 11 communities,
has replaced a fairly traditional program
(Heath Math Connections) with a fuzzy math program.
A resident of the district sent us this update (December 2004):
Everyday Math has been adopted as THE curriculum. I don't know if it has been
implemented in all schools, but some schools were using it last year and some
have just started this year.
Even more disturbing is U-46 no longer has any advanced math curriculum until 7th
grade. In years past, a math specialist taught gifted math students but that
disappeared last year, along with lots of other services, during the great budget
debacle. Some parent volunteers assisted last year but that has also been
discontinued.
U-46's own website now confirms the awful news that
Everyday Math has been adopted
for use in elementary grades throughout the district.
U-46 in the news:
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 101 - Batavia
A parent writes to us,
I am a parent in this district and Everyday Math has
been approved and implemented by the School Board. As a result,
my child, who scored 82 on Iowa Basics in third grade and was
an A-/B+ math student is generally failing in fourth grade. Math
homework is a tear-filled challenge on a nightly basis. Test
scores are between 10% and 65%, and the Iowa Basics score has
fallen.
Terry and Donna Todd, two fed-up parents who ran
for the school board, wrote,
My wife and I are two of the people who are running for the
school board election on April 3, 2001. We have become so frustrated
with what is happening that they leave us no alternative but
to get on the board and throw on the brakes and try to get the
wrongs reversed. This trend needs to be stopped now before we
have a complete train wreck educational system in Batavia. Some
may think it already is.
The reason you don't see much in the board minutes is because
the audience is not allowed to speak during the meeting. There
is a short public comments section before the meeting and that
is it. ...
Elected or not, we will continue to get information out to
the community about what is happening in the schools.
Another parent wrote to us in February 2005:
Batavia, Illinois district #101
... is using U of C Everyday Mathematics. ... This program is big on teaching options in figuring out problems
but kids mix methods and quite frankly if they have one solid strategy that will
always work why make them learn more. I'm all for finding alternate strategies
for kids who aren't getting a traditional method. However, teaching all kids all
methods is ridiculous. ... [W]e are
spending thousands of dollars for an outside tutoring program. ... At the PTO meeting the principal
indicated that the students' math scores were improving, she then declared it is
due to the Everyday Math program. They are out of their minds.
District 129 - West Aurora
This unit district includes the west side of Aurora, North Aurora, Montgomery and Sugar Grove.
The district website provides this wonderful news:
2004-05 Elementary Program Adoption
During the 2004-05 school year the Math Curriculum committee conducted a textbook
evaluation and adoption process for the elementary level. As a result of this
process, Saxon Math was re-adopted by the Board of Education and new edition
textbooks were purchased at the 4th and 5th grade levels. Also purchased were
replenishing manipulative kits for K-3, new manipulative kits for 4 and 5, and
Every Day Math Games Kits for all grade levels at each school.
Summer 2005 Curriculum Writing Project (Elementary)
20 District 129 teachers assembled for a curriculum course and engaged in a
process of analyzing the Saxon Math program lesson by lesson, aligning it to the
Performance Descriptors and Mathematics Assessment Framework, and created
individual lesson guides with alternative, differentiated activities for each
lesson K-5. The scope and magnitude of this work was enormous, and the District
is fortunate to have the group share their products.
Middle grade students continue on in math with another good lineup:
Grade 6 | Regular | Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley, Middle School Math, Course 1 |
Enrichment | Glencoe Math, Applications & Connections, Course 2 |
Grade 7 | Regular | Glencoe Math, Applications & Connections, Course 2 |
Enrichment | McDougal Little, Gateways to Algebra & Geometry |
Grade 8 | Regular | Holt Pre-Algebra |
Enrichment | Saxon Algebra, 3rd Edition |
Way to go, West Aurora!!!
District 131 - East Aurora
CUSD 300 - Carpentersville/Dundee
Community Unit School District 300 comprises an area of 118 square
miles northern Illinois.
The villages within the district include: Algonquin, Carpentersville,
East Dundee, Gilberts, Hampshire, Lake in the Hills, Pingree Grove,
Sleepy Hollow, and West Dundee.
The District also includes a small portion of Elgin, an
annexed portion of Hoffman Estates, along with portions of
Barrington Hills, Cary, and Fox River Grove.
Elementary grades in D300 have adopted the mediocre
Scott Foresman Addison Wesley Math series. While
this program is a graphical nightmare of fonts, colors and sidebars, its math
instruction is neither good nor horrible -- it's just mediocre. Weaker or less attentive students
are likely to be confused by its layout and demands for extruding math thinking through
developing verbal skills, as well as its emphasis on multiple methods.
In the fall of 2006, math instruction in middle schools will
expand to 90 minutes per day. According to the Tribune (April 12, 2006)
"Principal Stephanie Ramstad said pupils need better math skills so the
school can get off the state's academic watch list.
One way to do that is with longer classes, she said."
A better way would have been to adopt a math program with a clear, soothing layout
and plenty of practice and maintenance in mastering math goals, but we guess that
D300 never thought of that.
The Trib continued, "The added class time will probably
mean more computer-lab work, one-on-one time and meeting in
small groups to discuss concepts, officials said."
Oh, yes, there's nothing like 8-year-olds "discussing concepts"
for quality learning.
So, D300 kids will get to spend a mind-numbing 90 minutes a day with
SFAW Math and heavens-knows-what merry
activities. We wonder what was cut out of the classroom day to create this
time block?
At least one of the elementary schools in D300 claims that they'll improve math
in this way: "Math journals were utilized in the classroom to give students
practice in describing a mathematics procedure." So, if you're weak in writing,
now you can be weak in math, too. We wonder if music students
have to write essays describing procedures in how they play, or if atheletes have
to write essays in arm and leg motion in shooting baskets.
One D300 school says, "Teachers utilized the benefits of peer interactions to
enhance learning in the area of mathematics through a cross-grade level Buddy program."
It's weird how educrats insist that teachers must hold a paper state certification
to teach in an Illinois mainsteam public school (no matter how poor the teacher is in fact)
yet have the chutzpah to claim that having one child teach math to another is commendable.
But when it comes to public relations, then D300 goes for a serious approach:
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
Cal Skinner's
blog provides
these additional insights:
"And what did the District 300 tax hikers pay Unicom, Arc?
The differently identified District 300 tax hike committee--now morphed into
'Advance 300'--paid $9,125 to Unicom Arc April 11, 2005, for 'Survey, Schools Now
For District # 300 Committee.' Under a previous name, the District 300 tax hike
committee paid Unicom Arc was paid $1,000 for 'consulting fees' on June 2, 2003,
and $7,500 in on June 5, 2002. On April 23rd and 24th of the same year, Unicom
received checks for $1,572.64 and $825.56, respectively. $5,000 more was paid on
March 19,2002. The firm got another $15,000 on March 4, 2002. September through
the end of 2001 saw the tax hike committee pay $12,255.13 in bills to Unicom
($4,000 on 9/10, $8,000 on 10/28 and $ 255.13 on 12/5). And, there's another
$4,000 on September 10, 2001."
Cambridge Lakes Charter School
In Pingree Grove, west of Elgin, developer Cambridge Homes
built a new charter school in its Cambridge Lakes development.
It was quite an exciting development, since it was stated that this school would be designed around solid academics,
including Core Knowledge,
Open Court reading
and Saxon Math. That would make it the first public school of this kind anywhere in the Chicago suburbs.
But now that the school is in operation, the reality is different from what was promised:
The math curriculum is not Saxon Math., but instead is
Everyday Math (aaacccckkk!)
The school claims to have a program "based" on Core Knowledge, but we note that it is not included on the
official school list maintained by the Core Knowledge Foundation.
The school website has very little information about what actually goes on in its classrooms.
One parent told us that conventional feedback on progress is absent as well:
"There aren't any report cards just sample work. You just have to believe what you are told. I know my kids were learning, but in comparison to what?"
Sadly, the school has been roiled in its first year of operation by management changes, parent and teacher dissatisfaction,
and negative press articles.
Also see Coyote Forum, run by parents of CLCS.
District 301 - Burlington
District 302 - Kaneland CUSD
Let's roll up all of these towns around here into one sprawling Big Ed fiefdom!
As Kaneland's website explains:
"The district encompasses 140 square miles in southwestern Kane County and is at
the western edge of the Fox River Valley. Within its boundaries are all or parts
of the incorporated Villages of Aurora, Cortland, Elburn, Kaneville, Maple Park,
Montgomery, North Aurora, Sugar Grove and Virgil. Also included are two area
codes, eleven zip codes, all or part of eight townships and nineteen voter
precincts."
And what do the kids get in math?
Why, it's the old nemesis, Everyday Math.
District 303 - St. Charles
What a mess! Kids in Kindergarten through 5th grade in D303 are stuck with
Everyday Math. After that,
they're condemned to Connected Math,
"thanks" to a board decision in February 2000.
From the Chicago Tribune's "Voice of the People" on September 29, 2006:
St. Charles -- New to the Illinois school system, we were surprised when our 2nd
grader brought home the "Family Letter," a four-page instruction sheet that
"helps clarify the vocabulary and math tools" our child will be learning. The
letter is to be used as a guide for parents to help children with their math
homework. Thirty minutes into his first homework problem, my son learned that by
writing an addition number story about a unit, he could then write the number
model, which "shows how the parts of a number story are related." Huh?
The letter also stated that my son will soon be learning the "new and improved"
version of flash cards, a "Fact Triangle" with a number in each corner and the
+,- signs in the middle. As parents we are also encouraged to talk with our child
about why it is "important to learn basic facts" and that this will be an
interesting and rewarding activity." Really.
I thought we were sending our son to school to learn basic facts. So far he has
learned how to manipulate a calculator. Heaven help the children of parents who
fail to comprehend the "Family Guide" and "new math."
Lynn Provost
In 2007, a parent wrote to us:
My [child] is absolutly struggling with Everyday Math. To hear
teahers, administrators and even [Superintendent] Dr. Schlomann ...
defend this program made my blood boil.
How can we reach parents of district 303?? PLEASE HELP!!!
The situation doesn't improve by middle school: The district offers the fuzzy
College Preparatory Mathematics (CPM)
for "accelerated" students. A parent wrote to us (2008),
The problem is that [CPM] is really "watered-down" to about 6th/7th grade
level from what I have seen with very little on symbol or abstract thinking. ...
Probably the most frustrating is "guess and check"
that pretty much destroys the beauty of solving for x algebraically.
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
District 304 - Geneva
DEKALB COUNTY
CUSD 424 - Genoa-Kingston
CUSD 425 - Indian Creek
CUSD 426 - Hiawatha
In May 2006, the school district reported this excellent news:
Thanks to the many teachers who
evaluated the current Connected Math program with the McDougal Littell math
series. In addition to the data presented at the last board meeting, a summary of staff
comments was submitted to the Board for their consideration. While the decision to
change texts is always difficult, staff, student, parent, and administration data
supported the recommendation to adopt the McDougal Littell math textbooks for 6th-12th grades.
Yea, Hiawatha!
CUSD 427 - Sycamore
Public schools:
District 427, just northeast of Dekalb,
provides a boatload of progressivist rhetoric on its website.
As an example, take a gander at the whoppers in their scary
"strategic plan."
A parent in D427 fills us in (2008) on details about math in Sycamore:
The grade schools use Everyday Mathematics
and the middle school uses
Connected Math. I have a [daughter who] does not know how to do long division
nor does she know how to multiply or divide fractions. She can, however, draw a
beautiful lattice.
I will [take] the time
to teach her how to do math. I thought the school was
responsible for instruction and parents were responsible for support and
assistance to their children. Apparently I was mistaken.
By 2010, the issue has become contentious enough that a parent group in Sycamore set up
an attractive and comprehensive website
Reform Sycamore Math
to alert parents to what is happening to their schools.
Private school:
Cornerstone Christian Academy not only uses the highly respected Saxon Math, but
also implements the principles and
curricular guidelines of the Hillsdale Academy Reference Guide, the only
school we're aware of in Illinois to do so.
(For more on Hillsdale, click here.)
CUSD 428 - DeKalb
Fuzzy math it is, with the infamous Everyday Math program.
One page on the district website says that
"[Everyday Math] allows
for your child to learn math in a spiral type system. What this
means is that as your child progresses through his/her educational career,
they will be covering the same material but at a higher level every year."
Aw, sweet. What they're not saying is that use of spiraling
(a.k.a., the death spiral)
gives a weaker student so many wonderful opportunities to experience
utter demoralizing failure.
CUSD 429 - Hinckley-Big Rock
CUSD 430 - Sandwich
CUSD 432 - Somonauk
WILL COUNTY
District 17 - Channahon
Can anyone tell us how math is taught in Channahon?
District 33C - Homer
Help other parents! Can anyone tell us more about how math is taught in Homer?
District 70C - Laraway
Help other parents! Can anyone tell us how math is taught in Laraway?
District 84 - Rockdale
Help other parents! Can anyone tell us how math is taught in Rockdale?
District 86 - Joliet
D86 has adopted programs from Harcourt (for K-5) and Prentice Hall (for 6-8)
for use starting in 2006-2007.
District 88A - Richland
District 89 - Fairmont (Lockport)
Can anyone tell us more about how math is taught in Fairmont D89?
District 92 - Ludwig-Reed-Walsh
District 114 - Manhattan
Can anyone tell us more about how math is taught in the fast-growing Manhattan area?
District 122 - New Lenox
A local parent wrote to us (September 2007) with this news:
Our school district just implemented Everyday Math for grades K-5 throughout our
school distrct. I am so disappointed in our school district I could just scream.
Had they not asked for input from other schools who have used this program and show
test scores down or checked the Internet to see what kind of feedback the program
was getting? If the housing market wasn't so bad I would move out of this area. ...
I now feel I have to go to a teacher store and buy books to teach my ... children
the basics of math.
Also our school did away with weekly spelling words to study for the spelling
test. They just give you the test with no way of knowing what words are on it or
if you even have a clue how to spell it. ...
Oh yeah, they no longer give letter grades A B C D F for
subjects. It's now B Beginning - D Developing - S Secure. So I will give the
school district a B for beginning a disaster ...
District 157C - Frankfort
District 159 - Mokena
We like this practical, honest statement on D159's "curriculum" webpage:
The [curriculum] process is based upon research, theories, trial and error,
discussions with administrators and just plain common sense.
How refreshing! It looks like they may be following through on "common sense" as well --
their standard math text is Sadlier/Oxford's Progress in Mathmatics,
a traditionalist program.
In junior high, the district uses Glencoe Mathematics, plus
Addison-Wesley Algebra for "enriched" 7th and 8th grade classes.
D159 is one of the very few districts that posts on their website
all of the major textbooks used in their schools in all subjects, with pictures even!
Kudos!
District 202 - Plainfield
A Plainfield resident wrote to us to say that grade schools
in Plainfield use UCSMP (Chicago Math), and adds,
"As a
parent I think it's the most absurd form of education that I
have ever seen. ... Somewhere along the line they've forgotten
it's important to know how to add and subtract (and the rest)
without the use of a calculator ..."
Another Plainfield parent also wrote to us:
"Our family sold our home in Plainfield last month.
... huge beautiful schools [but] we had no idea what
lurked inside. We had never experienced such a poor
academic curriculum in our lives. My boys do well in
every subject, because I paid for private schools in
order to escape the snares in learning that Plainfield
Schools offered. Their Everyday Math Program would sabotage
any child's good foundation in math. I never understood how
school board members could in good conscience allow
math programs that were so poor. Any math program or
reading for that matter, that has more pictures than
words is very telling to anyone."
UPDATE!
In mid-2008, Plainfield D202 finally dumped the much loathed Everyday Math
and switched to the new "enVisionMath" from Scott Foresman, with middle grades
getting a math program from Holt.
A D202
press release quotes their assistant superintendent,
"This change is overdue.
We've had the same program for 10 years and it's not serving our students' needs
as well as it once did. ... In particular we found gaps in 3rd, 4th
and 5th grades in terms of Everyday Math's alignment to the learning standards."
Other Notes
- Real estate developer MACOM Corporation gave $10,000 in both 2005 and 2006 to
a political group working for a hike in school taxes.
District 205 - Lockport Twp High
A parent writes to us,
I want to thank you for your honest and forthright information and not being
afraid to tell the truth. I wish more parents were not so apathetic and would
get informed and involved. ... Thank you, thank
you, thank you Illinois Loop!
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
Here in Lockport, the district spent a whoppin' $74,000 with UNICOM-ARC to help raise your taxes.
District 207U - Peotone
Parents have organized to battle the implementation of the dreaded
Everyday Math in their district.
According to an article in the Kankakee Daily Journal (April 2007),
"A new math program for students in kindergarten through fifth grade
has been under scrutiny by parents, school board members and
administration. ... Last month the Peotone School Board was given a letter submitted by 18
families that listed questions and concerns about the [Everyday Math]
program.
Melissa Paukstis was among the parents who signed the letter.
'I'm concerned that students in first grade aren't required to learn
the basic math skills. They're not learning subtraction but the
characteristics of geometry,' she said.
Catherine Schipman said she's concerned that students in kindergarten
use calculators to solve everyday math problems instead of learning
basic skills.
Parent Jennifer Moe's biggest concern is that the new math program
doesn't have students 'mastering' the four fundamental skills:
addition, subtraction, multiplication and division."
District 209U - Wilmington
This unit district has two elementary schools, a middle school and a high school.
District 210 - Lincoln-Way Community High
D210 operates Central High School and East High School, with students from Frankfort, Joliet, Manhattan, Mokena, New Lenox
and Tinley Park.
District 255U - Reed-Custer CUSD
IROQUOIS AND KANKAKEE COUNTIES
Iroquois-Kankakee regional office of education
|
Iroquois County
3 - Donovan
4 - Central
6 - Cissna Park
9 - Iroquois County
10 - Iroquois West
233 - Milford Township High
252 - Crescent-Iroquois High
275 - Crescent City
280 - Milford
|
|
Kankakee County
1 - Momence
2 - Herscher
5 - Manteno
6 - Grant Park
53 - Bourbonnais
61 - Bradley
111 - Kankakee
256 - St. Anne
258 - St. George
259 - Pembroke
302 - St. Anne High
307 - Bradley-Bourbonnais High
|
District 3 - Donovan
In March 2004, the Donovan district adopted Saxon Math for its schools.
Congratulations!
District 61 - Bradley
A parent reported (September 2008) the great news that Bradley D61 uses
Saxon Math in its schools.
Hurrah!
District 111 - Kankakee
A reader gave us this bad news in November 2009:
[KSD111 is] currently using Everyday Math
up to grade 6 and
Connected Math in grades 7 and 8.
GRUNDY AND KENDALL COUNTIES
CUSD 115 - Yorkville
A reader reports (2005),
Guess what math series is up for adoption in our district! It's
Everyday Math
for K-5 and
Connected Math
for 7 & 8. ...
Help! How can I save our children from this blight?
Another reader reports (2005),
Our district has recommended the controversial
Everyday Math
and Connected Math programs
for grades K-8 to the school board for approval. Parents have made the
school board members aware of their concerns but it looks like that won't make a
difference. We are concerned that this is just another instance of the district's
penchant for experimenting with our students. We had the same reservation and
discussions when they wanted to implement block-scheduling yet the district went
ahead anyway. More than six years later the time blocks are still not being used
effectively by a large number of classes and we feel our kids are suffering
academically.
CUSD 308 - Oswego
Oswego 308 certainly doesn't lack for ambition:
The educrats there are planning on shelling out almost a half-billion dollars (that's billion -- with a "B")
in building as many as 14 new schools, and expanding
many existing buildings.
But consider Oswego's math curriculum (the dreaded Everyday Math for K-5)
its devotion to happy science
("Oswego District 308 [is] anchored in an inquiry approach to science learning.
Students participate in hands-on investigations ...")
and its cryptically vague standard for teaching reading
(its Kindergarten curriculum guide only bullets these items:
"•Letter names and sounds, •Initial consonant sounds, •Rhyming (Phonemic Awareness)" [sic]).
Now, given all that
you would think that a half-billion dollars might be enough
to provide some alternatives.
But no-o-o-o-o. Imagination seems to be a challenge for Oswego.
Despite the stunning levels of new spending, there don't seem to be any plans
on the table for new options to enable parents to choose the right
education for their own kids.
Laurie Pasteris wrote (July 2007) to tell us,
I would like the parents of Oswego Dist.308 K-5 students to know that our
Everyday Math
program is up for review at the beginning of the school year. If no
one shows the school board any concerns over this controversial math program, it
will be reinstated. Carla Wood, the task force adviser for math, seems to be very
impressed by the program. She talks highly about how E.M. lets children think
outside of the box. My reply to her, as a parent and teacher, is children need to
know what's in the box first.
On September 10, 2007, a group of parents represented by Laurie Pasteris made a presentation
to the D308 school board formally asking for the removal of Everyday Math
from their schools.
Click here to read the presentation in full!
The Aurora Beacon-News covered the Oswego math rebellion, and here are some excerpts from
that story:
Aurora Beacon-News
September 23, 2007
What's The Right Formula For Teaching Kids Math?
Earlier this month, a group of parents marched into the Oswego School
Board meeting with a petition demanding that their children learn math
the way they did: worksheets with addition problems, teachers
scribbling formulas on chalkboards.
It's been more than a decade since school districts across the nation
ditched traditional arithmetic programs, and some 300 Oswego parents
say they're sick of multiplication that involves rectangles and
diagonal lines, children "discovering" math through games, and a
philosophy that says if students don't pick up on a concept now,
they'll just learn it when the lesson comes up again.
...
Read the full story here.
DOWNSTATE
Brown County - CUSD #1
A reader passed on the good news that Saxon Math is used in K through 6th grade.
Douglas County - District 300 - Sullivan
Edgar County - District 95 - Paris
Maybe the lights are brighter in Paris!
In downstate Paris, Illinois, kids will be getting on track with
Saxon Math! The district
confidently says, "Implementing the Saxon Math
series is a major part of the improvement plan.
Constant repetition of previously taught problems and a set procedure to fact
instruction should improve the identified weak areas in math."
Edwards County - District 1
The Downstate Edwards County School District teaches kids math with Saxon Math!
Greene County - CUSD 53 - North Greene (White Hall)
A resident tells us,
The [UCSMP Chicago Math] math textbooks are not teacher/student friendly. The textbooks throw
bunches of things together in such a curious fashion, as to confuse the teachers
as well as the students. The elementary school is now using
Everyday Math and
our students are not learning their multiplication facts at a young age but are
using calculators in kindergarten. I don't understand why the basics are not
important to this school district. They are valued very much by me, and I prefer
the McDougal Littell Concepts and Skills textbooks highly over the [UCSMP]. The
teachers in the high school have to slow their pace to teach their students the
basic skills they should already possess once they enter the high school. I am
disappointed in this choice for math textbooks in the entire school system.
Jersey County - CUSD 100
A math program from McGraw-Hill is used in grades K-6. In the middle school (7-8?)
we were told simply that the program is "Math Applications", and
McDougal-Littell is used for those taking algebra in 8th grade.
See: Local citizens' group:
Jersey County Coalition for Public Awareness.
Jersey County schools in the news:
-
Video -- The Story of Jersey County:
After voters resoundingly defeated a bond referendum to build a new high school, Jersey County District 100 administrators and board members decided to do what they wanted to anyway. With the help of an extensive network of associations and other tax dollar profiteers, the district ignored the will of the voters, borrowed tens of millions of dollars, and built not just one, but two new school buildings.
Madison County - Community Unit School District 7 - Edwardsville
A reader gave us the unfortunate news (August 2009) that D7 students have to muck through
Everyday Math.
Madison County - District 15 - Wood River-Hartford
About 15 miles northeast of St. Louis, Wood River-Hartford teaches kids
math with Saxon Math!
McLean County - District 87 - Bloomington
A teacher wrote to us,
My school district, District 87, in Bloomington, Illinois adopted the
Mathematics in Context
series, which was developed by the Wisconsin Center for Education
Research, for grades 6-8 several years ago. In my opinion, this series has been
a dismal failure in teaching math.
Ogle County - District 231 - Rochelle
- Uh-oh: "Everyday Mathematics was implemented in all K-4 grade rooms"
- Even the brighter kids are hobbled with fuzzy math:
According to a posting about something called the "Academic Enrichment Program":
Fourth grade students, from all four elementary schools, who have
been identified as advanced in the area of math ... use the Everyday Math
series for some of their instruction. ... The program is enriched with individual
research ..., problem solving, and higher level thinking skills. ...
Fifth grade students who are identified as gifted or advanced in math
... also use the Everyday Math series.
Perry County - District 204 - Pinckneyville
What do these downstate districts know that seems to elude the great minds
in the suburban districts?
Pinckneyville is another district using Saxon Math.
Perry County - District 300 - DuQuoin
Downstate DuQuoin teaches kids math with Saxon Math!
Saline County - District 3 - Harrisburg
Downstate Harrisburg reports on their website,
"We are also in our second year of using the Saxon Math program and we are extremely
pleased with the progress we are getting from our students in math. ...
The Saxon Math Program builds on the prior learning of students and is centered upon
the goal that all students achieve success. Mathematical strands are not taught in
short units and then abandoned; rather, they spiral throughout the year, providing
students repeated chances to master new learning in small increments, with ample
time allowed for practice between increments."
Way to go, Harrisburg!
Tazewell County - District 76 - Creve Coeur
Creve Coeur (just south of Peoria) teaches kids math with Saxon Math!
Vermilion County - District 5 - Catlin
Downstate Catlin (in east central Illinois) is noteworthy for
its use of Saxon Math!
Vermilion County - District 11 - Hoopeston
Downstate Hoopeston, "Home of the Cornjerkers,"
teaches kids math with Saxon Math!
Wabash County
We have been told that the North Intermediate Center of Education uses Saxon Math.
Winnebago County - District 100 - Belvidere
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
Cal Skinner's
blog provides
these additional insights:
"Belvidere's Citizens With a Vision for District 100 paid Unicom Arc paid
$64,881.71 last spring. The tax hike committee's purpose is to 'raise awareness
to assist passage of school referendum.' The total effort cost $88,000.
Clearly, UNICOM Arc is a 'turn key' operation. A tax hike committee writes it
big checks and it takes care of the referendum campaign. The money was raised
from homebuilders, their allies and vendors, although there is a fair
representation from individuals."
Winnebago County - District 131 - Kinnikinnick, Roscoe
A parent writes to us,
Kinnikinnick District 131 in Roscoe is currently using the
Investigations
curriculum for lower level grades and the Mathscapes curriculum for middle school
grades. ... [The kids now]
will be stuck trying to derive pi and arrive at the formula for the circumference of a circle
by themselves for a week. ... [M]y husband [and I want] to express our complete disapproval of these ridiculous curriculums.
Winnebago County - District 205 - Rockford
Rockford has been famous for the brutal attacks on teacher-led instruction of phonics in
its poorest schools. Read our special, detailed report on the
Rockford Reading Disaster.
Rockford appears to be pretty sad in its math instruction as well:
Kindergarten through 5th grade is subjected to Everyday Math,
while middle school grades must endure Connected Math.
Starting in 5th grade and going on through high school, kids are to use TI-84
calculators.
The large Chicago charter school group CICS has received approval to launch a new K-12 charter school in Rockford in September 2010.
That must be great news to the families whose kids are stuck with the awful Everyday Math in Rockford's
conventional public schools!
Oh, wait: CICS has announced (see here)
that its CICS Rockford school plans to
also crush kids in grades K through 6 with the same Everyday Math program.
For grades 7 and 8, CICS says they'll use a program they identify as "Math in Context",
but we haven't been able to figure out if that means the horrible
Core Plus: Contemporary Mathematics in Context series,
or the mysterious Dutch-based Mathematics in Context: A Connected Curriculum series (click through for each of those
to learn more about them).
Realtors to the Rescue -- Almost
In August 2006, the Rockford Area Association of Realtors
recognized that having better schools improves property values,
and backed that up with a $30,000 grant! And how are the Rockford Realtors
planning to spend their money?
By funding efforts to bring charter schools to Rockford? Nope.
Giving seed money to schools adopting rigorous phonics and math programs? No again.
Lobbying for a school choice pilot program, as has been so successful in Milwaukee? Uh-uh.
Starting a full investigation into the
Rockford Reading Disaster? No-sir-ee.
So, how do the Rockford Realtors think they can help education? By giving the whole $30,000 to
a political group working for a tax-hike referendum to raise more money for the same old failed bureaucracy!
Have you been Delphi'ed?
This district has used professional PR firm UNICOM-ARC for
public relations efforts.
To learn more about UNICOM-ARC, and how school districts have been employing slick PR tactics,
read these pages on our website:
NON-GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS
City of Chicago - Catholic
City of Chicago - Jewish
City of Chicago - Other
Cambridge School Chicago: This non-denominational Christian school at 4611 S. Ellis
says that it combines the approaches "of Charlotte Mason, Marva Collins, Dorothy Sayers, Dr. Howard Gardner, and E. D. Hirsch, Jr."
That's a pretty broad range, but we are encouraged by their enthusiasm about
classical methods: "Our Administrator has a strong background in classical schools, most recently serving as headmaster at a classical Christian school in Texas."
They describe their methods as following the "Core Knowledge sequence in combination with the excellence of the classical tradition",
but also "with an emphasis on experiential learning". This is worth investigation by careful parents.
The deepest problem with "experiential learning" or project-based methods in general is that content is too often watered-down
by all of the activity. But if the school maintains its committment to the Core Knowledge Sequence, then that
suggests content remains a priority. We are thrilled to learn that teachers are chosen on their ability to teach
and their degrees in related fields of study, rather than just paper credentials on dubious ed theories.
The news in math is wonderful: the school uses
Singapore Math
!
Chicago Grammar School:
This private classical school at 900 N. Franklin uses
Singapore Math
from Kindergarten through sixth grade!
University of Chicago Laboratory School:
No surprise here -- in the early grades the school uses the infamous
Everyday Math
program developed by the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP).
At the time of this writing (mid 2008),
tuition is $18,492 for grades 1 through 4, and $20,286 for grade 5 through 8,
and $21,480 for high schoolers.
Suburbs - Catholic
Suburbs - Lutheran
Suburbs - Other
-
Evanston - Baker Demonstration School:
This school has recently (2014) adopted the slogan,
"Baker, the Progressive School", which wins one of
our prestigious Truth-In-Education-Advertising awards. So, parents beware! But this isn't anything new; the school
itself says it was "founded by progressive education pioneer, Clara Bell Baker",
and is affiliated with the ultra-fuzzy National-Louis ed school. So, it's no surprise that
Baker was last reported as using the dreadful
Connected Math program.
-
Niles - Science Academy of Chicago:
The school's website says, "There is a great need for a college preparatory school
with special emphasis on math and science education." Despite that, the schools uses
Everyday Math in early grades.
-
Winnetka - North Shore Country Day School:
The lower grades here use a witches' brew combination of
Everyday Math
and TERC Investigations.
-
Lake Forest - Lake Forest Country Day School:
While the school website keeps the specifics of the math program a secret, it does ominously warn that
the "mathematics curriculum [is] derived from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' standards"
using a "constructivist approach" in which younger "students ...
are encouraged to build their own meaning ..."
-
Schaumburg - Schaumburg Christian School:
Kids are taught mathematics with Saxon Math,
and about reading the school website says explicitly, "The reading program focuses on mastering phonics." Yea!
(On the other hand, we have been told that class sizes are very large.)
Downstate
-
Cornerstone Christian Academy: Not only does this school use the highly respected Saxon Math, but
also implements the principles and
curricular guidelines of the Hillsdale Academy Reference Guide, the only
school we're aware of in Illinois to do so.
(For more on Hillsdale, click here.)
Tell us more!
We need more information on what is happening in math education in Illinois private schools.
Please write to us if you can help!
Your suggestions and information are welcomed!
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