Community Corner

Letter: 'Facts Are Not Gray' Regarding Fairfield Math Curriculum

The Fairfield Math Advocates respond to a letter from the school board chairman.

[Editor's note: Bold text emphasized by the letter-writer.]

Dear Editor:

Chairman of the Board of Education (BOE), Phil Dwyer, is attempting to gray the facts surrounding the district’s continued use of the CPM Algebra 1 textbook this year. He claims no wrongdoing because the change that has occurred is not "permanent" and because the book is a “pilot.” (Citizen News, March 29, 2013)

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C.G.S 10-229 states, “(a) No board of education shall change any textbooks used in the public schools except by a two-thirds vote of all the members of the board.” The word “permanent” does not appear anywhere in the statute.  Karen Parks, Deputy Superintendent of Fairfield Schools, during the Dec. 11, 2012 BOE meeting, states, Two things have changed about Math Algebra I – instructional approach and textbook.” At the same meeting, BOE member, Jennifer Kennelly, states, “…we are using an unapproved textbook…We have not approved this textbook.”

Moreover, if you are one of the 850 current Algebra 1 students using the CPM textbook, and who, presumably, will not be taking Algebra 1 next year, the lessons taught, or self-discovered, from the CPM book are most definitely “permanent.”

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As for the "pilot" story, Mr. Dwyer neglected to mention that, under Fairfield’s Curriculum Policy 6200, the administration is obligated to make a periodic report regarding a “planned” pilot to the BOE. The district entered into a purchase agreement for the CPM books and additional materials in May 2012.  However, a periodic report regarding the “planned” pilot of the CPM Algebra 1 textbook from May 2012, or earlier, does not exist.

In addition, the use of the CPM book across the entire district simply does not meet the definition of a “pilot.”  The Oxford Dictionary defines “pilot” simply as: “adjective [attributive]1.done as an experiment or test before introducing something more widely.” John Convertito, Board of Education member, questioned the veracity of such widespread use of the CPM book as a pilot during the Dec. 11, 2012 BOE meeting.  “I cannot responsibly remember…when a textbook was piloted across every section of a grade level.

Prior to the Dec. 11, 2012 meeting, the district denied the presence of the CPM Algebra 1 text, misled parents into thinking that only the instructional model had changed, and claimed that only professional development was purchased from CPM.  “It’s not a pilot program.  It’s an instructional model that’s being used,” said then BOE Chair, Pam Iocono, in October 2012.  “We have not purchased the textbooks.  The district paid $13,000 for professional development…,” stated Dr. Meg Boice in a December 4, 2012 email. 

Only when it became impossible for the district to deny that they spent taxpayer money to purchase a book (“CPM opens its workshops at no cost to everyone...” (www.cpm.org/learn.html)  “CPM underwrites the cost of providing instruction in the use of CPM materials…” (http://www.cpm.org/teachers/workshops.htm)), did administrators admit there was a “change” to the Algebra 1 text and attempt to explain its use as a “pilot.”

Facts are not gray, which is precisely why the State Department of Education has launched an investigation.

- Fairfield Math Advocates


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