On Jan. 20, 1998, the Escondido Union High School District (North eastern San Diego County, CA) board made some major changes in district mathematics programs. These changes are based largely on examination of the performance of students in the different programs on various nationally normed tests.

Escodido previously tried and dropped College Prep Math (CPM).

1) IMP (Interactive Mathematics Program) will be dropped after the current group of students finish.

2) The Core Plus Mathematics Program (CPMP) will become, along with the current "traditional" program, the two programs offered in Escondido High Schools.

3) Parents/students will have a choice of math programs between the current "traditional" offering and the CPMP.

4) The default "choice" will be the "traditional" program. Students will be enrolled in CPMP only if they actively choose it.

On Tuesday, June 3, 1997, the board in Escondido voted to offer students a choice of math programs beginning in September, 1997. This means that the parents of 7th and 8th grade students will be able to choose between the Glencoe program the district has been using and a more traditional program.]

On Tuesday, May 21,1996, the Escondido Union High School District Board of Trustees unanimously accepted the joint resolution agreed to by the Parents For Math Choice and the District Curriculum Council. The final vote on acceptance of this resolution should be held next month. Since the policy is set, however, the district is actively implementing it per our agreement. TRADITIONAL MATH, INCLUDING HONORS AND AP COURSES, WILL BE OFFERED TO ALL STUDENTS NEXT YEAR. This document is not everything Parents For Math Choice wanted, of course, (see original ABME) but it's a good start. We need to depend on our teachers to be the professionals they claim to be, and teach the traditional math classes with all the energy they have. We do not attempt to tell teachers how to teach, but expect they will respond appropriately for the optimization of student learning. Traditional math need not and likely should not be always taught in traditional ways, but all mathematical topics must be covered in the length of the course. Parents For Math Choice is excited about the advent of real CONTENT STANDARDS as part of the final agreement for our District. To this end, the Board of Trustees and the Superintendent were given copies of the Virginia Mathematics Standards as a starting point (found elsewhere on this web page). No matter what methods our teachers use to convey the topics covered by the Standards finally adopted, we expect student achievement in all areas. Attempts to provide dumbed down Standards with no real content will be resisted with great enthusiasm.

Finally, I would like to publicly thank our local Board of Trustees for listening to PARENTS on this important issue. At the end, the District also was more than gracious.

Final Wording of Compromise Document:

• 1. Students of the Escondido Union High School District shall be offered a choice between the traditional and integrated mathematics courses at all schools.
• 2. Honors level mathematics courses be offered in traditional and integrated mathematics. That Honors courses be qualifiably different, with registration prerequisites established and identified. That Advanced Placement courses be offered.
• 3. Mathematics course offerings and descriptions be made available to students and parents prior to registration. That pilot programs be identified as such.
• 4. That students in traditional math courses be grouped by honors and college preparatory levels in separate classes if enrollment permits.
• 5. That all mathematics students will be graded based on individual performance.
• 6. That the district develop scientifically quantifiable standards for mathematics curricula by course level and disseminate these standards as content requirements for all mathematics curricula. Students will be tested uniformly against those standards, including nationally normed tests.

We have had a plethora of Whole Math programs in the district. Two of the three High Schools had gone completely over to Whole Math for incoming freshmen: Orange Glen - This high school had two Whole Math programs all by itself.

• 1. College Prep Math (CPM) from UC Davis (used to be Change From Within) - This is the program invading San Diego City Schools. It roughly follows the traditional sequence, but is not a traditional math program. It follows the California Framework ideals of group work and constructivism where the students must teach themselves the math in groups without previous instruction. Students are not allowed to ask individual questions - this is reserved for the group. It is based entirely on word problems. (The course has no practice problems.) Number based practice problems are demeaned as "rote" or "drill and kill". This course has a small to medium social engineering content and much attention is devoted to writing about math instead of actually doing it. THE SCHOOL HAS DROPPED THIS PROGRAM FOR NEW STUDENTS! Students currently enrolled will be allowed to finish the sequence if they so desire.
  
• 2. Interactive Mathematics Program (IMP) from UC Berkeley - This program is easily the worst of the programs we have. It does not follow the traditional sequence and therefore will not appropriately prepare students for traditional science classes in a timely manner. It is constructivist in nature, promotes group-only student questions, has no practice problems, and has a huge social engineering content - the math seems almost secondary. As a result, it's an incredibly weak program. Looking through the pages you find problems based on radical environmentalism, HIV/AIDS instruction, child abuse, social studies, science, geography, "finding the perfect group", and many others. Much of this material is highly questionable. For instance, the child abuse problem has the student calculate the number of unreported child abuse cases given certain statistics and then asks the student HOW THEY WOULD VOTE on a screening program for child abuse! It also has students writing about bees when the only connection to math is the shape of the cells in a beehive. This is very stupid stuff. It is due to be on the general market by the end of the year. Please note that this program is not yet in general release (information from the IMP Web page), but our district still claims it is not experimenting with children's education.

This school is absolutely in love with the Core Plus Mathematics Program (also CPM) from Michigan. (Note that the initials are the same as the previous program, but the math is totally different.) It is even newer than the IMP program, and may be somewhat better mathematically. It has a large social engineering content, but less so than IMP. One of the problems has students calculate the percent drugs in a person's body after they take them, and given a certain half life, how long it would take before the drug would dissipate to a certain level. (It would seem that Timothy Leary was a consultant on some of this program.) At any rate, it does not follow the traditional sequence and will not properly support traditional science classes, it is of a constructivist nature, promotes group-only student questions, has no practice problems, and stresses group work and writing about math.

Escondido High School

This was the only school with a nearly complete traditional program. There were a few students we learned in a CPM Davis Geometry class, but this is the minority of students. We have heard that the district will force a Whole Math program into the school as an offering, but at least they can't force traditional math out of the school as they planned. We admire this math department!

When we registered him for his Freshman classes, we were asked if he intended to go to college. He did and does. We were advised that the Interactive Math Program (IMP) was a college prep class developed at Berkeley and it contained more rigorous academics and higher standards than traditional math. [first lie] We were also advised that the only other choice would be an applied math course that is designed for those not planning to attend college or who could not achieve the high academic standards of IMP. [second lie] We were erroneously told that the traditional progression of Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II would not be taught as the students would receive those classes in IMP. [third lie] We asked if he could get into ANY college in the U.S. with this class, we were told yes. [fourth lie] He had to fill out an application and a cover letter asking to be admitted to this program. (pure School-to-Work activity, but we didn't know it at the time. We were still blissfully ignorant of what was about to transpire over the next three years.)

We were not told that the IMP is integrated with English grammar, extreme environmental issues, HIV/AIDS instruction, social studies, science and geography.

We were not told that standards had not been developed.

We were not told that the academic content has been dumbed down to the point that only about 1/4 of the normal math content was being taught.

We were not told that students could only receive a grade of "A" or "B".

We were not told that MOST of the work was done in groups for group grades and the students who did not do their part of the group work caused the entire group to receive and in-progress (IP) and the students could continue to do the same work until everybody received and "A" or "B".

We were not told that students peer assessed themselves and their classmates, and the grading scale is I, S, F and U.

Each student is given a Rubric to follow. The Rubric Definitions, are also the grades that appear on the student's work are:

• I - Illuminated: Exceeds essential elements of the task.
  Shows "above and beyond" grasp and use of central mathematical idea(s).
  Recorded work communicates unique, creative thinking/discovery of complex relationships and patterns
  The response is elegant. All answers are completely justified.
• F - Focused: Substantially accomplishes the purpose of the task.
  Shows essential grasp and use of the central mathematical ideas.
  Recorded work largely communicates thoughts.
  The response is complete and correct and clear. (possible slight error)
  Sketches probably included. Explanation of patterns is included.
• S - Skeletal: Partially accomplishes the purpose of the task.
  Shows partial but limited grasp and use of central mathematical ideas.
  Recorded work is incomplete, misdirected, not clearly presented.
  The conclusion is incorrect (or work and explanation is missing)
  Work is started but exploration is incomplete.
• U - Undirected: Little or no progress toward accomplishing the purpose of the task.
  Shows little or no grasp and use of central mathematical ideas.
  Recorded work is barely (if at all) comprehensible.
  Attempt is made but shows no understanding of problem.
  Response is blank or completely off track.

Is this problem to hard? Is this problem to easy? or Is this problem just right?

We became alarmed when math work started coming home with I's and F's on them. We went to the school and that is when were told about the rubric and the scoring system. We were also advised that most of the IMP does not have right or wrong answers. Students use the guess and check method, they estimate what the answer might be. There is no drill and skill, no formulas to figure out. All math is done with a calculator and only the estimated (if not the correct) answers are put on the answer sheets. This program does not use textbooks, they use math units (pamphlets) such as Alice and Wonderland, The Pit and the Pendulum, Orchard Hideout, Cookies, etc. The students do a lot of graphs and story book problems.

If you were to give either of my sons the following Algebra problems, neither of them could arrive at an answer. They have never seen such a problem presented in their classroom.

• 2(5m + 1) + 16 = 4 + 3(m-7)
• 4x -{3x + (- 2x - (x-a))}
• 2 x 3a = 6a

Once the student entered the IMP class, they had to stay. Traditional math was dropped last year and the applied math program was implemented this (1995-96) school year. It is really a dumbed down class. My 8th grader challenged the entire 9th grade curriculum with no preparation and moved into the second year of applied math.

As parents became more concerned with what was happening with math at the high school level, we began to search for answers and help. We contacted colleges at random across the country. Most were not familiar with IMP. The Calif. colleges said they would except our kids and this math program, but our kids would probably have to be remediated at the Freshman level. My husband (a former instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy) has been tutoring him since mid year of his freshman year. Other students are staying in the class (they need the credits) and are being tutored privately afterschool and on weekends. This should not happen. The school should provide our students with basic traditional math. They don't.

The good news is, I found your group, Mathematically Correct and began a correspondence with you and other members. Using the information you provided me, (thanks) I began to share your messages with other parents and teachers. As a result, three of our math teachers have refused to teach applied math next year. They fought and won the privilege of teaching Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II. This stand was a brave one as our teachers have been told to get on board with this program or get out (documented on tape). IMP is still going to be available on an opt in basis but I suspect their won't be many students opting into the program. The help of your group (and the information) is giving our parents hope.

• A student with four years of IMP math graduated with honors and a 4 point plus GPA. She applied for classes at a community college and could not pass the entrance requirements for basic freshman math. Her father was outraged saying his daughter was now in the "bonehead" math class. He wants some answers from the high school as to why his daughter is being remediated after four years of "college prep" IMP math.

• An eleventh grade student opted for an early admission program offered at a local four year college. She submitted her transcripts and took the required placement tests. The college refused the early admission based on her failure to meet math standards for the freshman year. The college does not recognize IMP in place of traditional Algebra and Geometry. School officials intervene and remind the college that are by law required to admit the students. The college relents and admits the student, we will see if she has to be remediated.

• A 10th grade honor (4.0 GPA & IMP math) student informed her parents that she would not return to her high school for another two years of OBE, saying she would leave home first. The parents made arrangements for the student to attend a school in a neighboring school district, allowing the daughter to move to another town twenty miles away so she could meet the entrance requirements. Based on her GPA and transcripts, she was admitted to all "Honors" classes in the school. After just two weeks, the teachers notified parents that the student could not do the work and requested permission to have her tested. The parents opted to take her to an independent testing center for evaluation. She could perform only some math functions at 2nd grade level and the overall results placed her mathematically at grade level seven. This is after two full years of IMP and straight A's. The parents are paying to have the student remediated in math, history, English grammar and other subjects so she can graduate with her class this year.

• A student with three years IMP math registered for senior physics. The student and parents were told that he would be better off taking a fourth year of IMP. The student was adamant, he didn't want another year of IMP. The school counselor told them that IMP did not prepare him for physics -- it did not lay the proper foundation.

• At a parents' meeting, school officials were trying to convince parents that IMP is an effective program and leaves students ready for other classes. One spoke of a handful of seniors that were doing well in physics after IMP. A student in the audience raised his hand and was given a chance to comment. He noted that he was a senior in physics, and the IMP students in question were succeeding only because he and others from traditional math programs were tutoring the IMP students in the algebra skills needed for high school physics.