Math Texts Flunk State Guidelines, Board Says

In an unprecedented move, the state Board of Education indicated Friday that it plans to reject all mathematics textbooks submitted for use in kindergarten through eighth-grade classrooms next year, saying the books failed to meet stringent new statewide guidelines on how mathematics should be taught.

After a recommendation from a state textbook review panel, the board, in a 10-1 straw vote, indicated that it plans to allow publishers one year to submit rewritten or substantially revised manuscripts. According to the review panel, none of the mathematics books submitted by 14 major publishers met the objectives set forth in the guidelines issued earlier this year by the state Department of Education.

Time for Revisions

The board will formally decide on the texts later in the year, but it took the preliminary vote Friday to give publishers a head start in making the revisions that state education officials believe are necessary.

The officials said they hope some new books will be ready for classroom use next fall, but several publishers’ representatives attending the meeting said it might not be possible to make the necessary changes in time.

Although state officials are aware of the problems the delay may cause both for school districts that need new books and for the publishers, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Bill Honig said the board had no other choice. “We can’t approve books that the experts say are below standard.”

Honig, a non-voting member of the board, said the decision reaffirms the demand for higher quality textbooks the board made last year when science textbooks came up for adoption. The board then rejected an entire series of seventh- and eighth-grade science books on grounds that they failed to adequately explain such controversial topics as evolution and human reproduction.

Far-Reaching Changes

The changes that state officials are requiring in mathematics books are more far-reaching than the science book issues, Honig said, because they strike “at the heart of how a discipline is taught.” And, he added, because California is the nation’s largest buyer of textbooks, the changes the state is demanding are likely to influence the way math is taught in the rest of the country.

The mathematics books in question were deficient in three key areas, according to Joan Akers, a mathematics coordinator for San Diego County schools who headed the review for the board.

One weakness was a tendency on the part of many textbooks to focus on memorization and mastery of specific rules and procedures, rather than developing a deep understanding of number concepts.

For example, Akers said, the textbooks teach students how to calculate percentages but not what they mean. Citing an analysis of this year’s California Assessment Program tests, Akers said that only 52% of last year’s eighth-graders correctly answered the question, “What is 100% of 32?” The incorrect responses the eighth-graders chose included 132 and 3,200.

Active Involvement

In addition, the books failed to provide students with opportunities to be actively involved in learning. For example, Akers said, most of the rejected textbooks would show pictures of objects to be counted instead of suggesting that students find the objects themselves and use them to solve the problem.

“Students need a hands-on experience to really understand the concept. If they only memorize what’s in the book,” Akers said, “they will forget.”

Moreover, she said, the textbooks need to include more challenging problems and to encourage students to devise the best strategy for solving them. Current textbooks tend to concentrate on pencil-and-paper computation, Akers said, when other methods--including estimation and the use of calculators and computers--may be more effective.

California spends about $100 million a year on textbooks, half of which is used to purchase mathematics materials, state officials said.