Textbook Review

Our school utilizes the Go Math! textbook published by Houghton Mifflin. One of the main reasons for this selection as an elementary was due to the rigor of the assessment and the "alignment" to the SBAC assessment questions. Teachers of the upper elementary level (Grades 3-5) heavily voted to select Go Math! over My Math (McGraw-Hill) because students will have much practice with type of assessment questions they may see on the SBAC. Being a charter, our accountability reports are crucial to the success and continuation in the later years.

After reading the review for Go Math! at Grade 3, I was disappointed that the focus of this curriculum (did) not meet expectations and the coherence partially (met) expectations. Even though it was one report of our textbook, the negative feedback on the curriculum we utilize to educate our students of not meeting the expectations brought uneasiness. Therefore, I had to read further and understand how the textbooks were being assessed and what Gateway One and Two were.

After reading the specificity of the review, I got the sense that there was not enough review of previous grade standards and challenged the students too much, which I can say that I do agree with. From using the textbook, I can tell you that the students with an enormous wealth of knowledge (e.g., GATE students, high-achieving students) are challenged at times by certain concepts and processes in a less engaging way since the challenges are worksheet-based from a textbook. Many times, the language of the textbook and in the assessments are a barrier or deterrent for students to access information and be able to express their own processes in solving these math problems. Simply, I do not mind that students are being challenged of materials in Grade 4 because they get a glimpse of what to expect in the next grade level. In this way, I feel that they can be challenged now and better prepared for the next grade level or the future, but at the same time, understand the sense of scaffolding may be lacking in the curriculum. Therefore as the teacher, I need to build those bridges and connections in the lessons or between lessons in order for students to grasp the concepts on their own.

I happened to see the 9 textbooks in total were reviewed, and only 1 textbook (Eureka Math) met all the gateways of the EdReports review. The other 8 textbooks did not pass Gateway One. My initial response was that this must be another proposition of a publisher (Great Minds) to sell its curriculum because I see that parts of education is a business rather than molding young minds to become thinkers. Another reaction was that this shows that publishers are not taking the time to create useful and knowledge-productive curriculum rather another profitable, purposeless material. By putting a CCSSM stamp and changing a few things in the textbook, it may sell; however as educators, we must always understand this is the reason why we need to be innovative, proactive, and creative in order to make these standards accessible to our students.