Parents in Utah have been fighting an ineffective math program, Connected Mathematics, and at their website, Kids Do Count, you can read all about it. Don't miss this background page which effectively critiques the NCTM 1999 Standards (I've written about those before), and notes that former NCTM president John Dossey believes kids should get full credit for getting wrong answers in the "right" way. And, as KidsDoCount notes, a curriculum review provided on Connected Math's own website notes that the program does not put eighth-graders on track to reach calculus by 12th grade, nor does it promote a fundamental proficiency in math.
KidsDoCount linked to a CSM series from 2000 about the parental revolution against the "new-new" math, which provided this execrable example from an "exemplary" sixth-grade Connected Math program:
In Plano, Texas, parents whose children were using the "exemplary" Connected Math program questioned sixth-grade assignments like: "Choose a whole number between 10 and 100 that you especially like. In your journal, record your number, explain why you chose that number, list three or four mathematical things about your number, list three or four connections you can make between your number and the world."
Petitions began circulating to remove the program. When that failed, six parents filed suit last August alleging the district is violating their right to direct their children's education.
The KidsDoCount page doesn't seem to have been updated recently, but it's a good read nonetheless.
(Via Mathematically Correct.)
Posted by kswygert at March 22, 2004 03:44 PM