The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD), has had its share of problems but there have been few issues quite as egregious as the "new-new" math curriculum mistakes. The curriculum problems in Santa Monica are complicated by an insidious form of discrimination where students in the more affluent neighborhood schools have the benefit of a State approved, State content aligned curriculum and the schools in less affluent southern part of the District have MathLand and CPM, neither of which is State approved for educational content. In July of this year the SAT-9 results were released for the third year in a row- in every year by every measure, regardless of what type of group we compared, ie, LEP, non-LEP, low SES, ethnicity, etc., it was apparent the schools using State approved, State aligned math curriculum had high average student scores, sometimes as much as 60% higher than the other schools in the District.
Troubled that the District could be discriminating by not allowing all students access to the curriculum which demonstrated results, we looked further into this problem and discussed the issues with other local parents, many of whom knew nothing about the math curriculum their children were using, let alone that it was not State approved for educational content. We were not content to drop this problem which seemed to mushroom at each turn. When the local newspaper ran some articles which quoted administrators falsely claiming that all the texts used in the District were State approved, we knew we had to correct the record. With nearly one-sixth of the students in our elementary and middle schools in danger of retention at the end of June, 2000, giving parents complete and truthful information was an important step in helping children succeed. We formed a coalition of parents and other interested parties to address the issues at the District level, Santa Monicans Working for Equity and Excellence in Public Schools (SMWEEPS). Our group of five people has grown exponentially since the end of July; we now number more than one hundred. You can reach us at smweeps@aol.com. We welcome your participation.
A few parents in our group will be making brief speeches during the public comment section at the SMMUSD Board of Education meeting on Thursday, September 21, at 7 p.m. which will held in the City Council chambers. Parents are asking for:
Post script-
A. After much urging from SMWEEPS and other unassociated community members, the Board of Education of the Santa Monica Malibu School District adopted the State Standards for Mathematics on February 15, 2001.
B. On April 26, 2001, the SMMUSD Board of Education adopted a new policy on curriculum selection which substantively supports the adopted standards and which includes parents and community in the decision making process.