Reply to Why are MoCo kids failing math exams?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Look at the what the teachers do in all the highest scoring math countries. They use textbooks that have been well designed and follow the national standards. There is no way a teacher working alone is going to create a better math program than using a quality math textbook with the teacher's guide. Look at Math in Focus, which is a conceptual, mastery math progam based on a Singapore textbook called My Pals Are Here. It is excellent. It is ridiculous that I have to teach my kids do 30 to 45 minutes of math afterschool everyday so they have a chance of keeping up in math with kids around he world. A teacher does not have the time to independently develop a world class curriculum. [/quote]

And Math in Focus is exactly what they use in school in Singapore, right?

Plus, it's all very well to say that teachers should use textbooks that are well-designed and follow national standards. But we don't have national standards (and look at the outrage!!!!!!!!!!!! about the Common Core, which aren't even national standards), let alone well-designed textbooks that follow them.[/quote]

Math in Focus is a well-designed textbook published by Houghton-Mifflin. They made minor changes for the American market but it is really similar to what kids in Singapore are using.  After it was published the publishing company looked at the Common Core Standards and found that Math in Focus met Common Core Standards without doing anything but adding literally a few pages to the textbooks.  It bothers me that the teachers think they are doing a good job teaching math because my kids are doing well and their work if often held up as exemplar work. In reality they do well because we do tons of math at home. Many of the top math students are getting outside tutoring, going to Kumon/Mathnasium, or working with their parents at home. [/quote]

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