Please attend the September 10th Board of Ed meeting

Notes from Board of Ed Meetings

Reality Check - POB Math Scores

Letters from POB Parents

Articles from POB Teachers Congress

What You Can Do To Help

More Articles, Info & Links

Math Help for Parents & Kids

Please attend the May 21st Board of Ed meeting

IMPORTANT MATH INFORMATION! 

• Our children’s math skills have steadily eroded since the introduction, five years ago, of a highly criticized, experimental and controversial math program called “TERC-Investigations”.
  
  
• Many of us have hired tutors or have ourselves spent countless hours teaching our children real math.
  
  
• Many of our children lack basic mathematics skills and enter middle school ill-prepared for basic Algebra.
  
  
• Our math rankings, as compared to other Nassau County schools, for the percentage of students that exceed NYS standards are shameful: 

District Overall – 5th Grade Math – POB ranks 47th out of 53 Districts- (only 18% of our kids exceed the rather minimal NYS standards)!
Nassau County Elementary Schools –4th Grade Math-Rankings
Stratford Road	- ranks number 103 out of 182 schools
Pasadena	- ranks number 150 out of 182 schools

• Over 900 of your neighbors have signed a petition asking our School Board to return to a more traditional math program and remove the TERC- Investigations Math curriculum from the Plainview-Old Bethpage School District.  To learn more about the damage this program is inflicting on our children, and to sign the petition, please visit our concerned parent website at legacy.pobmath.com. 

HERE IS WHAT LEADING MATHEMATICIANS THINK OF OUR  “TERC-INVESTIGATIONS” MATH CURRICULUM.

"TERC is a program only pretending to teach mathematics. TERC students will hit a wall, probably at the end of middle school. They are not being given the grounding needed to understand the abstractions of high school algebra and geometry. Their options for careers in science and engineering are being closed off by their elementary school program." Thomas Parker, Professor of Mathematics at Michigan State University.

“TERC is in reality a seriously dumbed-down math curriculum that offers a profoundly defective foundation for students who will eventually take mathematics courses in college.” “TERC curriculum omits completely the standard algorithms for multiplication and division.  This… fails to recognize the standard algorithms’ critical importance to students’ mathematical development… necessary for children’s future success in algebra and calculus.” Stanley Ocken, Professor of Mathematics, The City College of CUNY.

When You Attend The Math Meetings: 

• Ask tough questions and demand straight answers!
• Ask how Investigations Math will prepare our children for algebra, calculus, college, and careers in math and science?
• Ask what proof there is that this curriculum will serve our children better than traditional math.
• Ask to see real proof - - don’t accept claims based on misleading or non-existent studies and statistics.
• Insist on excellence - - reject mediocrity!