New math for the new school year
By Terry Murry on Thursday, June 15th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PENDLETON – When children in the Pendleton School District return to school at the end of the summer, they will be introduced to new math curricula. After an in-depth review of math programs approved by the Oregon Department of Education, the decision was made to use Oregon Math by Big Ideas for elementary and high school levels. A different supplier, Oregon Math Ed Gems, was selected for the middle school.
Superintendent Kevin Headings said the middle school curriculum was selected because the groups studying all the possibilities felt like it aligned with the standards better than the Big Ideas product for grades 6-8 and also works well with the Big Ideas curriculum for the lower and upper grades.
He said the district reviewed three or four state-approved curricula and narrowed it down to two.
“We had those two reviewed by different groups,” he said. “We had the two piloted in classrooms actually taught by teachers just to see how effective they would be in front of the students.”
The roll-out plan that’s now in the works would have teachers training in August and then having a second gathering in October for any help that’s needed.
“Once they’re in the classroom, there are all kinds of questions that come up,” Headings said.
