Does Audrey Like Everyday Math?

To: Chancellor Klein
To: Mr. Evan Rudall

You may think it very strange that I would be concerned about education in 
New York City. Trust me, I am concerned about it everywhere. I had high 
hopes for NYC after reading some of the initial announcements about the 
changes to be made. AND then I read that someone had sold you a real bill 
of goods regarding your elementary mathematics program to be adopted nearly 
system wide - Everyday Mathematics.

Do you really want your fifth graders to learn the following subtraction 
algorithm? 526
-253
300
- 30
3
(Do you understand this? Can you finish the problem? Can you explain why it 
works? Do you really want to confuse the children by telling them to always 
subtract "the smaller number from the larger"?)

Now add the partial differences 300 + (-30) + 3. The students do not 
understand negative numbers so the teacher will probably tell them to "just 
subtract" which ruins it for them when they begin algebra. (You do want 
your students to take algebra, don't you?) I'll bet that you don't have 
more than a dozen teachers of fifth grade in all of NYC who could explain 
why this method works. Parents are certainly not going to be able to help 
their children with their homework. Just when the emphasis is on getting 
parents more involved in their child's education, you make it impossible!

One more example of why this program is NOT for your students. Negative 
exponents are taught (As a matter of fact, the fifth-grade book should be 
called "Exponents.") and you don't have any teacher who can understand and 
explain these to a group of students who still do not know their basic 
facts and who don't know anything about negative integers yet.


$8.5 million and this is what we get? EVERYDAY MATHEMATICS? Zal Usiskin is 
the Chicago Program's director and Max Bell is the director of EM. Both 
have been involved in federally funded off-the-wall programs before and 
they are still being funded? I have several concerns: the exemplary and 
promising programs were all federally funded, the programs were evaluated 
by a federally-funded team which just happened to include among the 
evaluation criteria that the program had to have had extensive field 
testing (Who better to do this than universities who have grad students and 
campus schools?) which immediately eliminated many of the 62 programs 
submitted for evaluation, and the promotion of the programs has been done 
with federally-funded materials.

I have outlined my concerns and discussed them as a guest on two radio talk 
shows, have written an article for the local paper, have talked to town 
selectmen, have had an hour's conversation with our school superintendent, 
and have made two presentations to the local school board. EM is being 
promoted by the Maine State Math and Science Alliance. This group has given 
grants to school districts to pilot the program.

Problems with EM based on my thorough review of the grade 5 Student 
Resource Book and the student journals:
1. Too expensive (Mainly because of the manipulative kits and the fact that
the journals have to be purchased every year for K-6)
2. Based on fun and games. (12% of the Student Resource Book is games)
3. Too many objectives; too little depth
4. Fragmented lessons - some topics occur in the Math Box lessons
before being taught
5. Insufficient practice
6. 12% of book is an "American Tour," a short American history course
which is referred to infrequently as a source of data
7. SRB is "show and tell"
8. Reading level in SRB is way too advanced for 5th graders
9. Too little problem solving --only 6 lessons in all of Journal 1
10. "Time to Reflect" -- Also 6 lessons which are of no mathematical value
in Journal 1.
11. Not expected to learn facts
12. Non-conventional algorithms taught (shades of new math in the 60s)
13. Advanced topics sprinkled in - negative exponents,...
14. New language - unsquare, fraction string, landmarks,..
15. Poorly prepares students for Algebra I - suggests a common denominator
method as the only one for division of fractions
16. Parents will not be able to help their son/daughter (A school board
grandmother and college graduate admitted that she had trouble helping
her 5th-grade granddaughter)

I cannot believe this program!


Have you even looked at it? You had to have been "slipped" a grant or you 
never would have chosen it. It will be a disaster!!! Isn't it strange that 
the very people who got to "the top" of their career having been taught 
more traditional math all of a sudden decide that it is no longer good 
enough for today's students?

It is not too late to reconsider! You want good math students. Then be 
certain that your teachers are prepared. They can't teach out of any book 
if they don't know the content and are "math phobic." There are some K-5 
teachers here in my district who cannot identify a rectangle, who cannot 
name the perfect-square numbers, who cannot define addition,.. I know that 
public schools are full of ill-prepared elementary teachers. I taught a 
course for teachers in problem solving at American University. Most of them 
were pitifully deficient in their knowledge of math. Many of your teachers 
in NYC are, too. I am really sorry to say this but it is true. You will see 
this as the disaster it is in about two years. Then, the person who chose 
it will move on to another school district and ruin it, too.

I do not apologize for the length of this correspondence; It is almost a 
matter of life or death for your students. Wise people change their minds; 
fools never do. I am hoping that you are wise!


Audrey V. Buffington, teacher, supervisor, nationally-known author of over 
30 books for elementary mathematics, nationally-known speaker and workshop 
leader, creator of Algebra Models by NASCO, ...
South Thomaston, Maine