State College Area school board renews math program

By Ed Mahon

STATE COLLEGE — To a packed house of more than 60 parents, teachers and administrators, the State College Area school board voted 6-3 on Monday to order the second editions of a controversial elementary math curriculum.

CDT/Nabil K. Mark

Third grade teacher Todd Roth works on a fractions problem with Zach Habermann at Gray's Woods Elementary School April 30, 2009. CDT/Nabil K. Mark

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Board to decide future of math program

However, even some board members who backed purchasing the $37,000 worth of materials for “Investigations in Number, Data and Space” said they want a committee to determine if the conceptually based program is the long-term solution for the district.

“What is the best curriculum for ... State College math over the next five, 10, 15, 20 years?” board President Rick Madore asked after the vote. “And I think that’s something that we really need to start working on right away.”

Madore voted in favor of purchasing the materials for K-5 students. The district plans to implement them next year in kindergarten, third-and fourth-grade classrooms.

Board members Ann Mc- Glaughlin, Chris Small and Jim Pawelczyk dissented.

The board’s vote came about two months after parents started an online petition calling for the removal of “Investigations” as the district’s primary curriculum. As of Monday night, the petition had 742 signatures.

At Monday night’s meeting, two parents told the board they were considering not sending their children to the district for math next year.

“I feel as if I have no option morally and ethically for my child ... (but) to withdraw him from school and to re-enroll him in everything but mathematics and home-school him myself,” said Penn State professor Barbara Schaefer, adding that it would be difficult “to make the time and make that possible.”

Two other parents, including one who is also a teacher, spoke in favor of “Investigations” at the meeting. The evenly divided audience generally split its applause after hearing comments from the differing perspectives.

Prior to the vote, Pawelczyk said implementing the second edition of the curriculum “obviates the district’s need to compare curriculums to determine if potentially better solutions exist. Maybe ‘Investigations Two’ is the next best thing since sliced bread. Maybe it’s not. But at this point, you just don’t know because you haven’t done the comparisons.”

School board candidate Pete Schempf told the board to vote against the measure, saying State College Area students should score higher on Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests.

“I think you’ve all failed,” Schempf said, addressing the board and the administrators. “… And I think you’ve spent the last month or so trying to develop a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”

State College students perform above both state standards and the state average, but their scores haven’t improved as rapidly as other districts’.

Before the “Investigations” vote, the board unanimously approved adopting an administrative action plan aimed at addressing parents’ concerns for next year. The action plan includes more advanced expectations for both memorization of math facts and ability to solve problems through the use of algorithms. The plan also includes more testing of those skills throughout the year.

Superintendent Patricia Best said the action plan was developed with the understanding that it would be implemented with the second editions of “Investigations,” which district officials consider to be an improvement over the first edition.

“I think the prudent approach on this is really to give this the very best chance it can have to work, not go ahead with something you’ve already identified as needing additional work and do that one more year, and then say, ‘We’ve given it a fair evaluation,’ ” Best said. “I think you go in with your strongest suit, to see what children are doing and ways to measure that.”

Ed Mahon can be reached at 231-4619