A Letter to All Interested Reading Community Members:

On Monday December 8,1997 at 7:30 PM, Dr. Edward Masonis of Psychological Corporation will be appearing before the school committee to discuss the Stanford "9" test results.

1. Testing of all fifth graders by the California Achievement Test or similar test to evaluate math ability and to evaluate "Chicago Math"
2. A Task Force composed of teachers, curriculum administrators and parents with expertise in the math and sciences to investigate the UCSMP math curriculum.
3. Clarify how the UCSMP program was selected.

After many months of work, the school committee agreed with CPR that testing of the 5th graders was necessary. These tests were administered in October 1997 and the results were discussed at the School Committee meeting on November 24, 1997. If not for CPR's efforts it is doubtful the School Administration would have been aware of the problems associated with this "New New Math Program." Prior to CPR's efforts, no plans existed to review this math program. Unfortunately, the research on the programs validity is minimal and CPR feels that our requests are prudent to protect our children from needless experimentation. According to the School Committee minutes of October 5, 1992 the reason for selecting "Chicago Math" was "the math program was in line with the National Council of Math Teachers and the California Framework". On December 2, 1997 California voted to change their State Mathematics Frameworks. They are now specifying grade by grade performance standards and are banning calculators from the classroom for grades K-7. The new state frameworks calls for balance with computational skills becoming routine and automatic.

CPR has now obtained Stanford "8" examinations for the years 1993-1997 Intermediate #2 Grade 5 @ 5.5-6.5 given at 5.8 (April). Results Percentile Rank.

Results for Stanford "9" examination Intermediate #1 Grade 5 @ 4.5-5.5 given at 5.2 (October). Results Percentile Rank

It is clear that math performance was in the 80 percentiles in the years 1993-1995. A downward trend appears in 1996 and 1997. This trend worsens in the "Chicago Math" program with computational skills dipping to the 67th percentile in 1997 and Total Math dropping to 73 percentile. CPR has always urged a balanced program one that stresses both concepts and computational skills! Join us on December 8 to hear Dr. Masonis discuss the above results and their interpretation.

CPR Steering Committee @ 942-0190