As I said before, some teachers find it hard to teach. Our district did a trial in four schools years ago, only one school did not have a fall in scores. Hard to believe, but it is true. So they abandoned it quickly.

In the end, our district wrote their own curriculum that borrows heavily from SM, but lacks the clarity and elegance, and adds all the reform math nonsense.

Our little private uses Go Math, which is like a poor man's version of the SM. A lot bigger, many fewer challenging word problems, but with more teacher's support. I have often wondered why they didn't simply adopt SM. I think it does go back to the fact teachers who are not strong in math find it hard,even if the gifted children and mathy adults love them.