Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Anyone familiar with UCSMP?

I remember joking last year about DS' pre-algebra text. It was ancient in age and ratty in condition and has been the same textbook used by our district for GT students for eons while the regular students have received at least two or more changes/upgrades in textbooks. Nevertheless, DS' pre-algebra text was a good book geared toward GT students.

However, DD will be taking pre-algebra next year and the district is switching to UCSMP (University of Chicago School Mathematics Project). Does anyone have an opinion/knowledge of UCSMP?

What I do know is they are the same group that put out Everyday Mathematics.

Our district right now has Everyday Math and I agree with the previous poster it is part of UCSMP. Ironically the district is getting rid of that in favor of Go Math because supposedly Go Math is more comprehensive.

UCMSP also published Everyday Mathematics for K-6. I believe the books share the same philosophical approach to teaching mathematics.

At this point I think there have been several studies showing this series is deficient versus other ones in teaching pre-algebra. Its particularly weak in building proficiency in computation.

Ben

Ouch! I am not familiar with Everyday Math but I have heard some complaints, including on this board.

Hmmm. Our district creates a lot of its own resource materials for elementary math in addition to the official textbook so the textbook was never a huge concern. However, DS relied a lot on the pre-algebra textbook last year so comprehensiveness of the pre-algebra text would be a source of concern.

My hope is that this philosophy is more apt by the time the kids get to the pre-algebra stage. Perhaps I should look into some of those studies. Although to be honest, I would think that computational proficiency should have been built before pre-algebra.