(Note: this message refers to the Letter from Parents Criticizing CMP, which can be found under "Public Engagement" in the Library section.)
From Melody Winstead, Middle School 'SMART PROCESS', New York, NY
Dear Joe,
I am curious about the quality and quantity of professional development for teachers. Do your teachers 'believe in' and have openly bought into the connected math program? Since teachers impact upon almost thousands of people and certainly parents, it appears that over time there may have been a kind of public relations breakdown between the teachers and parents.
We have similar problems with our Math in Context program. There are traditional teachers who choose not to buy into the contextual program. But that is not the real problem. The real issue surrounds teachers practicing programs they may really not understand themselves; and therefore, don't communicate the issues properly to parents.
Also, parents should write to the state regents to press them to align or make compatible state testing with performance-conceptually based programs. It seems that the 'bigger' problem has been completely overlooked: attempts to change the local system rather than the state system as well. If anyone has that kind of power, it is the parents.
