If you could pick an off-the-shelf math curriculum as the core for a GT school, what would you choose? Is there one you would run screaming from? Why?

We have the chance to influence our school's choice and thought this board would give great advice. We said we didn't love EDM and so she suggested TERC, but I'm not sure that's an improvement. The teacher does seem to be excellent at adjusting to kids' levels, but I wouldn't want to tie his hands with a poor choice of materials.

Singapore Math is the non-computerized elementary math curriculum I have seen mentioned most often on this forum, is what I have used with success with two of my boys, and is used by at least one gifted school, ANOVA http://www.anovaschool.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56&Itemid=65 .

I know I wasn't excited with my 2 boys using "Go Math" this year. It is possible that it was just that it was the first year using it and everyone was confused and next year it will be better but I have my doubts. One son will be out of it in middle school the other I will be after schooling his math if it continues to be such a dud program.

We've been using Singapore Math on and off at home and love it!

I have a math and comp sci degree and homeschool my 2 kids (after 2 unsuccessful years in PS for my oldest). I've looked at and own WAY too much math curriculum. I have yet to see anything that is as deep as Singapore, especially if you use their additional problem sets.

We use Singapore Math at home too. However, obviously, they need to pick up their math facts somewhere, since Singapore seems to assume that you already know your math facts. I've also been throwing in Two Minute Math workbooks 2-3 grade levels ahead. My kids really like it.

Singapore Primary Math with Challenging Word Problem and Intensive Practice Books.

I wouldn't recommend incremental programs like Saxon, for example.

We love Singapore Math and their Challenging Word Problems, too! It's great for GT kids since they are not tedious. We also needed to supplement with some math drills to get the math facts in early grade.

The Math Contests books from Mathleague are fun for older grade.

BTW, is this GT school for elementary only or MS/HS, too?

Thanks for the suggestions!
This is for elementary only. The curriculum coordinator is looking for something that encourages the kids to think for themselves and shows multiple approaches to a problem, which is what she liked about EDM. I pointed out that the spiral instruction (as distinct from distributed practice) is bad, esp. for GT kids, and she did take that seriously. Anything that looks like rote or direct instruction will be rejected on philosophical grounds.

I'm not sure she's considered the mathy kid problem. My impression is that the school had been almost unschooling for math and this has left some gaps for some of the kids that they feel the need to correct. In a way this is the hardest thing to do right - discover and remediate gaps that may be years behind a kid's usual working level without boring a giftie to tears.

And no, I'm not certain this is a great situation... But at least I have the chance to strongly influence the school, and its issues will be different from those that plagued our public school. Homeschooling would be a bad personality fit, and this looks like the Hoagies' Least-Worst solution.

Any clues whether Singapore can easily be used this way?

I have used Sadlier-Oxford Progress in Mathematics before and it meets the "shows how to do things in a variety of ways" and I think you could easily pretest kids out of distinct chapters and units...in fact I did that when I used it.

Thanks - we'll take a look at it!

For gap remediation, they might want to try something like ALEKS, which is set up to pretest and only present topics that the student needs to work on, in addition to whatever regular curriculum they end up using.

Thanks, everyone. I may have a hard time convincing the coordinator to go with a mastery curriculum but it's a worthy goal.

After reading your post, Kcab, I looked at that singapore math website you bookmarked. We have only used the blue and white books, not the Primary Education books you cite. Should we get those primary education books too? SO far, the blue and white ones have worked very well.

I think that the most important thing is that math is taught from a Constructivist perspective.

http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/math/

We are using Right Start to afterschool my six year old. Right now he is doing Level D, but here is my review of Level C:

http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/2011/06/14/review-right-start-level-c/

We love beestar and DD does the math program at home. The worksheets are full of real life world problems, challenging stuff to help kids thinking. Pretty cool~~
Lisa

I'm not a teacher.

From a parent's perspective: please stay away from using Every Day Math, aka EDM, as the core of ANY program, gifted or not. The spiralling back method, where weeks later the kids are asked to "recall" what they did back then, and apply it to what they are being newly introduced to right now, does not seem to work with most kids. At least, not for math.

Plus, I HATE the seeming reliance on calculators in that program, for young kids.

DS8 still has issues, having used EDM at his old school for Grades PS, K, and 1.

I am not familiar with Singapore Math.

The G&T program here is basically IEP/pull-outs for PG kids, and giving kids who are advanced or superior, but not PG, extra work to do while the teacher works with others in class. The extra work seems to be busy work, as only the "real" work, same as the others do, counts towards any grades.

FASTT Math and MathMasters online, self chosen, self directed, are a daily part of my son's math lessons in his school.

I think I am going to ask about Singapore Math at his school.

I've posted before how much we love singapore math. It's very visual and emphasizes problem solving skills. We did take a break for a bit to get math facts down better with Kumon drill and kill, but we will go back to it soon.
Our school used Everyday Math. It seems muddled. My son is very good at math and I think he didn't care what curriculum was used.