What Do You Think?
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NYC Parents are Not Buying Everyday Mathematics for their Children
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In January 2003, Chancellor Joel Klein announced that he planned to replace the more than 75 math programs in use at city schools with a single mandated curriculum; similar sweeping changes have been made to reading programs. Klein argued that ensuring that all students receive the same City Hall-approved training would improve a system in which 70 percent of children entering 9th grade read or do math below grade level.
So during this school year and the next, the city's 600 elementary schools are implementing Everyday Mathematics. (Schools designated as "high performing" are not required to switch this year, though many have; the rest will have their exemptions reviewed periodically.) Deputy Chancellor Diana Lam explains why school officials picked a program considered more progressive than those typically adopted by urban areas: "Just mastery of basic skills would not prepare our kids to do problem-solving, logical reasoning. Everyday Mathematics is a curriculum that combines both." Yet for many parents, the program, which refutes the back-to-basics approach that became popular in the 1970s, has been a hard sell. |