Mass & McDermott sounds like it could be an ABC odd-couple crime show from the ’80s — who didn’t love the hijinks of Hardcastle & McCormick? — but in fact the duo here are meteorologists pushing for better math curricula in Seattle’s public schools.
“Middle school math textbooks (Connected Math Program – CMP2) were last adopted in 2006, and elementary school books (Everyday Math – EDM) was last adopted in 2007,” argues University of Washington meteorologist Cliff Mass on his blog, “…it is time to secure new books.”
Mass’s antipathy to “discovery-based” math studies is well known– that hobbyhorse was part of what led to his parting of the ways with KUOW — but you’re probably more familiar with M.J. McDermott from TV, she’s a meteorologist at KCPQ 13. Her problems with the math curriculum come from her own exposure to it as a parent (she has twin boys), and as a volunteer algebra tutor at Ingraham High School.
In the following video, she explains why she believes “reform” math is failing students, by prioritizing a narrative approach to math understanding over proficiency in performing math operations. Now, in theory, Seattle Public Schools agrees with her on the importance of proficiency, but in practice test results, sadly, do not.
Some of the resistance to swapping out math curricula seems to be driven by the cost (and perception of waste). But the jumps in test scores from schools that have abandoned the approved math textbooks has made it hard to hold that line. As Mass explains, the district has essentially given in and is letting each school decide:
The current Seattle math curricula is so poor that several schools went “rogue” and moved to better books, at first against district wishes (it is now “legal” for local Seattle schools to change books if they can get the funds). For example, many West Seattle schools have moved away from Everyday Math to Singapore Math and Mercer Middle School dropped CMP2 for Saxon Math.
Mass hopes that new superintendent José Banda and the school board will address the situation head on — but that said, Banda recently announced, in dealing with a separate testing controversy, that schools could opt out of a Measures of Academic Progress test in the next school year. Allowing schools to opt out of bad administrative decisions is not the same thing as good leadership, and it creates arbitrary winners and losers in what is supposed to be an equitable public education system.
This is great news. I hope more schools come to see the need to replace textbooks that aren’t getting the job done. On a related topic, I will resume donating to KUOW as soon as the station backs off on its Cliff Mass ban, and invites him back onto the air to talk about the weather, math ed, and whatever else he wants to talk about, preferably with Marcie Sillman, or anyone other than Steve Scher.