A Careful Decision

As you may recall from an earlier post,  I had expressed some apprehension that our district might soon be adopting math texts without sufficient information for such an important decision.  I'm pleased to report that this did not actually happen-- the teachers' committee decided to put the decision on hold until October.   From the district's update on the topic, we can see that they stated three main reasons:

• Teachers on the Team were not convinced that the curriculum under review will sufficiently support teachers and students under the newly adopted Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Waiting until th efall will allow publishers to complete various updates for the team to consider.
• The Oregon Department of Education has not yet completed its identification of approved math materials under the CCSS—the expected completion date is October 2012.
• The team would prefer to delay the expenditure of such a large sum of money until the curriculum providers have a more comprehensive product.

While waiting to for these missing pieces of information, the district will discuss alternate plans, and may choose to emphasize some additional training on the core standards rather than rushing into a district-wide textbook adoption.
I'll continue to watch this process, and post an update here when more information is available.   I'm glad to see that our district was not dazzled by textbook companies' marketing materials, and is treating the math curriculum with the seriousness it deserves.