Escondiso flunks CPM, IMP Traditional math has best SAT scores. San Diego Union 1/21/98 A step back for the new math Trustees act to end it at one high school Susan Gembrowski "Students in new math at Orange Glen, for example, scored an average of 477 on the SAT, while those in traditional classes at the same campus had average scores of 502. " ""No data is available that indicates that the integrated math is a success," he said. " To: The LOOP:; From: "Mike McKeown" (by way of James Kilpatrick) Subject: Escondido Changes Math Plan Date sent: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 16:17:31 -0600 Subject: Time: 10:41 AM OFFICE MEMO Escondido Changes Math Plan Date: 1/21/98 Last night, 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. 3) The default "choice" will be the "traditional" program. Students will be enrolled in CPMP only if they actively choose it. The newspaper report follows. ------------------- San Diego Union ============== A step back for the new math Trustees act to end it at one high school By Susan Gembrowski STAFF WRITER January 21, 1998 ESCONDIDO -- Escondido Union High School District trustees last night agreed to eliminate a new math pilot program at Orange Glen High School after a report showed that math test scores there were the worst in the district. But trustees voted 4-0, with John D'Amelio absent, to make new math programs at San Pasqual and Escondido high schools a permanent part of the curriculum. The programs have been tried on an experimental basis. The new math program at Orange Glen -- known as the Integrated Math Program -- most likely will be phased out over several years, so that students enrolled in the program can remain until they graduate. The school board reviewed a report outlining the results of the Metropolitan Achievement Test, a standardized test given nationally, and found that students in the district's traditional math classes generally outperformed those in new math classes. Larry Gipson, a Valley Center parent who founded a back-to-basics math group, noted that "traditional math wins out on every page" of the report. Indeed, the report also showed that students at all three high schools who took traditional math classes outperformed students in new math classes on the Scholastic Assessment Test, or SAT, a standard used nationwide for college admission. Students in new math at Orange Glen, for example, scored an average of 477 on the SAT, while those in traditional classes at the same campus had average scores of 502. The Escondido high school district adopted the new math curriculum about five years ago at Orange Glen, four years ago at San Pasqual and two years ago at Escondido High. The academic war over how math should be taught in secondary and elementary schools heated up in California last year when the state Board of Education reviewed math standards and adopted ones that tended to shift math teaching back to basic drills, computation and memorization. Newer approaches emphasize word problems, where students take imaginary bicycle trips and sketch graphs charting the course of the deer herd population, for example. In new math classes, students are allowed to use calculators. Escondido Union switched to the new math approach when the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recommended it in the early 1990s, Assistant Superintendent Jayme Arner said. "The programs were built based on brain research that showed rote learning is not the best way for all students to learn," he said. But the district's scores show that the traditional math proponents are being vindicated, Gipson said. "No data is available that indicates that the integrated math is a success," he said. Copyright 1998 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.