You might be thinking that I’m about to launch into movie reviews this morning on account of the Fantastic Four movie opening this weekend. Alas, I did not get to see the movie yet, so I will merely appropriate the title to dress up another post on how the the legislature has not yet reached a budget accord. How can this be? Well, we have the astonishing adventures of the super majority Democratic led house and senate practically falling down in prone positions instead of amassing votes to pass a budget. Spend less, distribute revenue more fairly and votes will pop up like daisies. Why is this so hard for people in Hartford?

Speaking of Hartford, has anyone seen Bruce Morris? Has he returned to his no show job at the BOE? We know he’s not answering his phone, so he must be wandering someplace. Please report to the principals office Bruce Morris, any principal will do, but preferably in Norwalk and not New Haven.

Our third amazing tale comes from Chief Rilling in the Hour resolutely identifying the “irresponsible” landlords as responsible for the prostitution spas. Was Rilling not around in the 80’s when Norwalk’s finest cracked down on prostitution by arresting the customers? Nothing like getting your face in the local papers to curb that business quickly. Just a thought.

The last incredible item in our foursome is Lauren Garrison’s most excellent article in the Norwalk Citizen-News about the new math program proposed for elementary schools. If we all pause for a station break and reminisce about elementary school math we should all come to some vague recollection about what the fundamental math curriculum was. Something along the lines of numbers; you identify the numbers, you add the numbers, you subtract the numbers, you multiply the numbers, you divide the numbers, you separate whole numbers from the decimal numbers and the whole milk from the 2% milk, er, and fractions of all of the above. And now that we have examined elementary math, Dr. Watson, we review Garrison’s article:

John Keogh, the district’s instructional specialist in mathematics, on June 5 provided the Board of Education with an update on the pilot experience with the two programs and next year’s implementation of them for kindergarten through fifth grade. For the past five years, the district has used the Harcourt School Publisher’s mainstream math program.

Keogh explained that the two new programs have many similarities. Both are “standards-based,” meaning they are comprehensive in that they’re based on national and state standards; are coherent, as ideas are connected, not taught in isolation; emphasize depth with a focus on big ideas and on developing conceptual understanding; and are engaging for students with lots of active learning, he said. Both programs also focus on language development, which Keogh said is crucial in a district like Norwalk with a high concentration of English language learners. Both also have documented successes in Connecticut, are closely aligned to the state curriculum, and use a spiral approach, meaning they revisit big ideas throughout the year and in subsequent years.

The programs are not, of course, identical, and the elementary schools, in recognition of their differing needs, are being given the option of one or the other. For instance, Silvermine Elementary School has Mano-a-Mano, a dual language immersion program that requires lessons in all academic areas to be taught in both Spanish and English. Of the two programs, only Connecticut Voyages offers Spanish materials. In addition, during the pilot of the two programs, certain schools experienced dissatisfaction with one program and favored the other.

Keogh placed the decision to employ new means of teaching math in a historical context. In January 2005, Keogh’s first year in his position, the district evaluated its current program and found that the schools’ math scores on the Connecticut Mastery Test were low, near the bottom of the city’s educational reference group, which consists of districts that are demographically similar. School administrators decided that the current program was “not aligned to the new generation of CMT,” Keogh said. In October 2005 the state released a new Mathematics Curriculum Framework, which had a clear shift toward developing algebraic and geometric thinking at an early age as well as toward working with data, he said. Meanwhile, significant focus was taken away from computation. This change in focus was reflected in the CMT scores, said Keogh.

urthermore, in May 2006 the state conducted a textbook/program exhibition and invited only “standards-based” programs to participate, Keogh said. The Harcourt system was excluded from the exhibition. In November, the state informed the city that “implementing a ’standards-based’ mathematics program would be favorably received,” Keogh said.

A pilot of Connecticut Voyages was already under way in the city at the time. It had begun in 2004 at Kendall Elementary School in just a few kindergarten and first grade classes. Kendall Principal Tony Ditrio had discovered the program and was impressed with its demonstrated success in other urban schools.

In the 2005-06 school year, Tracey, Silvermine and Cranbury elementary schools joined Kendall in piloting Voyages in kindergarten through second grade. Teachers responded to the program with mixed satisfaction, and there were questions about the ability of the company to support the program at a large level, but all teachers observed a lot of student growth, said Keogh. The district decided to offer schools Growing with Mathematics as an option.

In May 2006, the pilot was extended district-wide in grades K-2. The principal of each elementary school was presented with the two programs and showed materials, then allowed to choose one or the other for his or her school to pilot. In 2006-07, Kendall, Jefferson, Tracey and Silvermine piloted Voyages while Brookside, Columbus Magnet, Cranbury, Fox Run, Marvin, Naramake, Rowayton and Wolfpit piloted GWM. Four half-days were devoted to positive implementation. Schools responded very positively to GWM, said Keogh.

The pilot will be complete at the end of the current school year. For the full K-5 implementation next year, said Keogh, Kendall, Jefferson and Silvermine have requested to stay with Voyages, while Tracey has opted to join the other eight schools in using GWM.

Keogh noted that Voyages costs $30 per student, or $720 for a class of 24, plus $70 for teacher guides. Voyages uses two soft-cover books per student, one called “Excursions” on investigating math ideas and the other called “Anchors” for traditional math practice; student assessment books; teacher’s guides; and manipulatives, such as blocks or clocks. GWM costs $1,050 per classroom kit after a discount, with a “consumable” portion of about $10.50 per student. The program components for GWM are student discussion books (one per pair of students); student workbooks, which are consumable; math chats for grades K-2; teacher files with topic guides; home letters; other supplementary components such as mathematics applications; and manipulatives.

Keogh noted that the district currently is spending about $80,000 a year on math consumables and that he expects this cost to decrease with the full implementation of Voyages and GWM next year.

Following Keogh’s presentation, some board members posed questions about the two programs. Greg Burnett asked if having elementary school students who are taught using different programs later feed into the same middle school where they would be taught together would be problematic.

Keogh said he did not anticipate this being a problem, because of the many similarities between the programs. In addition, no problems were observed when Cranbury switched from Voyages to GWM after one year, he said. However, the programs have not been around long enough for the participants to graduate to middle school.

If it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a ducks it’s a …. witch. Welcome to the new new math curriculum.

source: Norwalk Citizen News, City’s Elementary Schools to Use New Math Programs, By Lauren Garrison, June 14th, 2007