I read Mark's message with shock and disgust! The text or program for any subject has NEVER been, nor ever will be THE complete curriculum. It is our job as teachers to know what the students need to know and to be sure that they receive the required information. Just because the Investigations program does not BEGIN with an algorithm does not mean we leave them out! Yes, we hope that the students will have a deep and meaningful understanding of the concept and that they will "discover" the traditional algorithm (or at least see a need for one), but if they don't we don't just throw up our hands and say, "oh well, maybe next year..." You'd make a pretty poor American history teacher if you ignored everything after the Vietnam War just because that's where the "book" ended. As for assessment... welcome to the age of authentic assessment. Maybe you haven't heard, there are many ways to asses a student's understanding and they don't ALL involve a multiple choice test! Investigations allows teachers to see where students' misconceptions are- much more meaningful than just seeing that their answer to number 26 is "wrong." It also encourages metacognition- and the ability to communicate your thinking to others. I've known plenty of people (you may be one of them!) that can accurately plug numbers into a given formula but couldn't problem solve their way out of a paper bag. As a teacher AND a parent, I'll take a child that can THINK over a child that can memorize (even my dog can consistantly follow a repetitious series of steps) ANY day! Bob's additional comments are equally hard to swallow. I can't believe that any principal would instruct his/ her teachers to "send home old texts so the parents can teach math at home." If that is true, your school district has MUCH bigger problems than the Math text or program it has chosen to adopt.
