From: Ralph (for Teacher2Teacher Service)
Date: Mar 01, 2007 at 10:18:58
Subject: Re: Math program selection

Dear Mary,

Thank you for writing to T2T.  Textbook selection is always a difficult and
stressful task, since, as you say, there are always pros and cons with
every series that you look at.

From a personal point of view, I'm delighted to hear that your school is
moving away from Saxon Math -- I believe there are MANY stronger and more
suitable options out there!

The advice to choose a program that's on the NSF "Exemplary and Promising"
list of mathematics programs does make a lot of sense, but you mention a
locally developed program that NSF would not have looked at that might be
fine for your purposes, too.

Here is a website that lists the NSF-listed programs, gives an indication
of strengths and gaps, and even suggestions for supplements that would
address them--you might find it helpful to your deliberations:

http://165.248.30.40/ociss/page.jsp?department=ociss&page=downloads

Of course you can also go to the websites for the programs themselves, to
see what kind of support is available there--obviously the program website
is not going to "identify weaknesses" for you :), but it WILL give you an
idea of how the program functions, what additional resources are available,
etc.  For example:

http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/
or
http://www.mathtrailblazers.com/

Don't think I've been helpful enough to earn "chocolate" :) , but hopefully
I've given you some ideas that might help as you move forward with your
decision.  Good luck!

 -Ralph, for the T2T service

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