Event announcement: March 1st 5-7pm at Owen Hall 102, located on the OSU campus.

Occupy Oregon State and cosponsors present the Economic Survival Guide for the 99%- A Special Discussion About Surviving Competition Based Economies. This teach-in is free and open to the public.

This event will include discussions about:

Inequality and Privatization of Higher Education
Reality-based Economics
Worker’s Rights & Collective Bargaining at OSU
Alternative Economy for Corvallis.

Featured panelists include speakers from:

Coalition of Graduate Employees
Corvallis Hours Exchange
Occupy Oregon State
Occupy Portland

In solidarity with our message, we are proud to announce the following co-sponsors:

Coalition of Graduate Employees
Corvallis Area Move to Amend
Corvallis Hours Exchange
Occupy Corvallis
OSU American Association of University Professors
OSU Peace Studies

Find us at occupyoregonstate.tumblr.com,facebook.com/occupyoregonstate

For more information please reply to this email or contact Eric Coker at escoker@gmail.com

We meet every Friday (4-6 PM) at the Intersector Workspace in Corvallis barring any special events. This last Friday we just hung out and did some yoga together. We could have been more informative about it on Twitter. Hope you can join us this Friday.

Please keep an eye on the #CorvSMB hashtag and http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=295185639255 if you are on Facebook.

TERC’s “Investigations” math curriculum fails to adequately prepare students for algebra and higher mathematics as it does not provide them with mastery of the building blocks they will need to be successful. It is not suitable for students preparing for college, and adoption is likely to cause the district much heartache as it has in other districts. TERC’s “Investigations” curriculum encourages calculator use, rejects standard computation methods and memorization of facts, and does not provide practice for learning basic arithmetic. “They fail to recognize that automaticity at lower learning levels helps to maximize the effectiveness for conscious thought at higher learning levels.” (wgquirk.com) A summary of the concerns are described at http://www.wgquirk.com/TERC2008.html and http://wgquirk.com/TERC.html. In addition, http://mathematicallycorrect.com/ provides background information on the issues surrounding mathematics curriculum adoption.

Singapore Math would be a far better choice for Corvallis students! And it is on the Oregon Department of Education’s list of adopted instructional materials! This is the curriculum that professors of mathematics support and it is the curriculum used in the country (Singapore) that scored highest in international tests (Third International Mathematics and Science Study). Singapore Math offers simple and logical explanations, a major focus on the topics that will prepare students to be successful in algebra, and use of pictoral or strip models that aid students in thinking symbolically to solve difficult problems. The curriculum ensures students will know basic arithmetic so these calculations are automatic when they get to fractions and algebra. It is easy for teachers to differentiate instruction with Singapore Math by utilizing the extra workbooks available for extra practice, intensive practice, and challenging word problems.

I hope you will give this issue critical attention as the implications for the future of Corvallis students are huge. In a town where such a high percentage of students are college bound, it will do students a huge disservice to start them out with TERC’s Investigations curriculum, as it will not prepare them to be successful in algebra and beyond. Any university professor can describe for you how universities are being affected by a generation of students whose K-5 “new-math” instruction did not provide the foundation needed for more advanced math. They will describe for you graduate students who still have not mastered basic arithmetic. In addition, the ability to compute is a skill that everyone needs to function in everyday life, whether or not one’s career depends upon it. It is foolishness to remove it from K-5 math curriculum or relegate it to the back burner.

Best regards,

Melora Halaj