Print E-Mail AIM

District overhauls math curriculum for first time since 2000

Avani Nadkarni/for The Herald

During the last school year, a committee of 24 people affiliated with the Sumner School District, including administrators and teachers, met to discuss the district’s K-5 math curriculum.

“The premise was to learn more about math instruction,” said Kathryn Briggs, a teacher on special assignment with the district.

The district hadn’t overhauled the math curriculum in nearly a decade and the state has recently set new standards for teaching math, so administrators felt it was time to introduce new curriculum.

The group reviewed the state’s four most popular math teaching materials and visited schools in districts that use them. The committee also asked teachers within Sumner School District to test out the materials in their classrooms. After much review, the committee chose Investigations, math teaching material used by over 50 districts in Washington, including Tacoma, Puyallup and Auburn.

“Its engaging for students,” Briggs said of Investigations.

“They are actually physically working with math,” added Erin LaVerdiere, the district’s executive director of teaching and learning. “It builds the concepts of math so kids know why they’re doing what they’re doing.”

The majority of the nearly 250 K-5 teachers in the district also favored Investigations, Briggs said, because the teachers manuals give in-depth background of the information they are expected to teach.

“It helps the teachers see where they are going (with the curriculum),” LaVerdiere said.

The new material also provides plenty of practice for students and emphasizes group activities while simultaneously adhering to Washington state standards.

“It was important to teachers (that the curriculum) matched state math standards as closely as possible so they weren’t back-filling,” LaVerdiere said.

The cost of overhauling curriculum comes to just under $200,000 for just the materials — teacher training is extra. It was important to the administrators and teachers to find a solid curriculum, said LaVerdiere, because they will use the same material for about a decade.

Investigations also comes with online support for not only teachers and students, but parents as well. LaVerdiere said the parent-support portion should be available by November or December of this year.