"I took a poll at lunchtime at work the other day. 100% of parents of school-aged children who also hold PhDs in science prefer the Everyday Math curriculum.* For inexplicable reasons, our own neighborhood school, and the entire school district, had stopped using EM despite more than respectable standardized test scores and teachers who loved the teaching method. Perhaps EM pushed some parents out of their math comfort zone (read The Math Moron)?"
I have a PhD in the sciences (biology) and I don't like EM at all. I'm surprised at the result of your poll, given that the people who lead the charge against the reform mathematics movement (EM is part of this movement) are typically scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. See
Mathematically Correct for examples.
I don't like the fact that EM has too many questions with no right answer. For example, when kids learn to measure, they cut out a paper ruler and part of their homework involves measuring things at home. The teacher has no way of knowing if the child did the task correctly or not unless the kids bring in the stuff from home for the teacher to re-measure (highly unlikely). EM is replete with exercises like this one.
Val
