Bellevue textbook committee recommends traditional math books

A special textbook-adoption committee for the Bellevue School District recommended Holt secondary math over the inquiry-based Discovering curriculum last night, quelling concerns that the group was ignoring math traditionalists.

The decision-making process now moves to the district's Instructional Materials Committee and then to the School Board.

Both Holt and Discovering veer from traditional math toward "reform math," which emphasizes thought processes rather than algorithms. But Discovering goes decidedly further than Holt – too far, according to some district parents.

A coalition of traditional-math advocates – consisting primarily of parents, math professionals and college professors – came out in force against the Discovering system, saying it would leave students unprepared for college and cause problems for anyone without a strong command of reading and writing.

The textbook-adoption committee said the Holt series is better suited for students working on math at home with their parents, according to a report from the Seattle Times.

Several teachers argued that the Discovering books would work best so long as class sizes are small, the Times said. But budget cuts could make that impossible.

Bellevue schools curriculum director Kathee Terry told The Reporter last month that supplemental materials would be needed for both textbooks in order for them to reach the district's standard.

Sharon Kautz, a district administrator who facilitated the special-committee meetings, said the recent math debates may have placed too much emphasis on school books alone.

"A textbook is not an approach – it's just a book," she said. "Our teachers will still use a variety of instructional strategies to teach math."

District grandparent Patrick Timm expressed similar feelings when he contacted The Reporter to say that math books are only part of the equation.

"The debate about the direction of math education in this country has been raging now for decades," he wrote. "Yet it seems our students are no more, some would say less, educated than those who finished high school 30 years ago. I don't know what the answer is. But I am convinced that the choice of what math book to use is at the end of the day only a fraction of the problem."

Contact Bellevue Reporter Staff Writer Joshua Adam Hicks at jhicks@bellevuereporter.com or 425-453-4290.

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