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Why this website?
...Because our children - ALL children - deserve a quality
mathematics education in PWCS!!
In 2006 PWCS directed mandatory implementation of the elementary school mathematics curriculum TERC - "Investigations
in Number, Data, and Space" in all PWCS elementary schools. The traditional, proven, successful mathematics program
was abandoned for a "discovery learning" program that has a record of failure across the country.
Of all the VA Department of Education approved elementary math text/materials, "Investigations" least
adequately supports the VA Standards of Learning. Yet it was somehow "the right choice" for PWCS
children. Parents of 2nd and 3d graders are already realizing the negative impact of this program in only a year and
a half's worth of "Investigations." Children subjected to this program end up two years
behind where they should be in mathematics fluency and competency by the end of 5th grade. PWCS is committed
to experimenting with our children's future. We think our children and our tax dollars deserve better.
PWCS parents should have the opportunity to "opt out" of the "Investigations" experiment, and our children should have
the opportunity to be taught mathematics by proven traditional courseware and materials - as was the case before forced "Investigations."
Join us in the campaign to make PWCS stop
"Investigating" and teach math right in our schools!
Contact us for further information at: New teach math right e-mail; overwhelming response has forced us to a larger account; update your address to:
About Us
This website is dedicated to parents, educators, mathematicians, scientists, and other PW county citizens
who are concerned about quality mathematics education in PW county public schools.
We are a local nonpartisan advocacy organization of parents, teachers, and citizens in PW county who
are committed to fighting "dumbed down" "Junk Math" in our public schools. We provide information, resources, and networking
opportunities to support systemic improvements in the quality of mathematics education in Prince William County VA schools.
the nation's flagship resource for national mathematics educaton reform and systematic improvements
in the quality of mathematics instruction in our nation's schools.
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Petition to Remove "Math Investigations"
from PWCS - over 1220+
signatures to date!! YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN PWCS
MATH EDUCATION! Click the link below to read and sign!
Petition To Remove "Investigations" From PWCS
NEW LINKS 26 Jan-
SEE LINKS TO LEARN MORE PAGE
See "Investigations" in Action! Click the video links
below
"Dumbed Down" with Investigations in Ridgewood NJ
Math Expert Calls TERC Investigations "Illiterate"
24 Jan 2008 Update - SOUND OFF TO PWCS - NEW LINK TO PWCS' 2007-2008
ANNUAL PARENTS BELOW - DEMAND RETURN TO QUALITY MATH IN YOUR KIDS' SCHOOL:
Click here - PWCS Annual Survey For Parents 2007-2008
A Few Disturbing
Facts About TERC Investigations:
- TERC removes teaching
the times table to children.
- No valid math
study has ever been performed showing the effectiveness of Investigations Math (click here for more info)
- Traditional proven simple and
efficient arithmetic algorithms are discouraged, but children must "rote memorize" convoluted and excruciatingly complicated
procedures to solve basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems.
- Long division is a concept
not taught by TERC...even by 5th grade.
- TERC's recommended handbook for teachers called "Beyond Arithmetic" says traditional elementary math must
be discarded because it ignores the fact that "today's students have an important tool available to them: the calculator."
BA, Page 77
What do experts say about "Investigations"?
Dr. Wilfried Schmid, Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University and Panelist on the National Mathematics Advisory
Panel:
"A TERC teacher doesn't
explain, and a TERC teacher doesn't teach! I don't want to be misunderstood: group learning and discovery learning are parts
of the tool chest of every accomplished teacher, but it is folly to turn these techniques into an ideology. If we mathematicians
had to re-discover mathematics on our own, we would not get very far! And indeed, TERC does not get very far.
By the end of fifth grade, TERC students have fallen roughly two years behind where they should be." Dr. Wilfried
Schmid -"Remarks on Investigations in Number, Data and Space (TERC)." NYC HOLD Math Forum: Are Our Schools' Math Programs Adequate? Experimental Mathematics Programs and Their Consequences. New York
University Law School, NYC, June 6, 2001.
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