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It's Time To Dump Voyages Math

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By PAMELA JACKSON-HANEY and PAM SISEMORE

Published: October 10, 2007

The School District of Hillsborough County would like us to believe that the reason our elementary students are struggling to master foundational math skills has more to do with teachers' deficiencies than with those found in Voyages, a program written by Hillsborough County School District employees. We don't buy it.

Our older children are successful math students, enrolled in challenging, higher-level courses. Why do our younger children, taught by some of the very same teachers, lack the same clear understanding of math? What's changed? We took this question to the source.

Taking to heart the district's claim of being 'responsive to parents and the community,' a group of moms started doing our homework. We've logged literally hundreds of hours researching, number crunching test scores, and talking with national math experts. We were concerned that Voyages had not been reviewed or adopted by the state as an approved textbook for elementary mathematics - a legislated process that encompasses critiques, comparisons, and scrutiny of instructional materials.

The district also side-stepped its own internal procedures by independently adopting Voyages after financially committing to its purchase, then subsequently releasing it for districtwide use with little or no input from teachers or parents and with no control-group studies to validate its claims of effectiveness.

Following several years of contentious meetings with the district and criticism from teachers who responded to a district survey, an agreement was reached to conduct an evaluation of Voyages. In August 2007, the evaluation was completed. As stated in this report, 'a curriculum is more than a collection of activities or lessons, it must be coherent, focused on important mathematics and well-articulated across the grades.'

As we expected, the content analysis that was performed reinforced the position voiced by both teachers and parents, that Voyages does not meet this standard. And yet again, district officials defend Voyages, continuing to claim this program is not the problem.

So then, what is the district's conclusion? Held in such high regard that they were deemed exceedingly competent to author the Voyages math program, the district has laid the fault at the feet of our teachers - apparently now incapable, just seven years later, of effectively teaching elementary mathematics.

In fact, we were told that it wouldn't matter what program our teachers were using, we would be experiencing similar results. But, if this were truly the case, wouldn't other districts, particularly large ones who share similar characteristics to our district, be suffering the same fate?

After analyzing the FCAT and Norm-Referenced Test scores of the seven largest districts in Florida, it is clearly evident that this is, indeed, not the case.

In 2002, Hillsborough County trailed only Broward with the highest percentage of students scoring at 3 (which is proficient) or better. And Broward, using a state-adopted program, has successfully managed to maintain its top position since that time.

Have we? Unfortunately for the children in our district schools, the answer is no.

From 2002-2007, Hillsborough County ranks last with the lowest percentage improvement in FCAT scores across all three grades, with several districts exceeding our percentage improvement by over 100 percent.

If comparably qualified teachers from other districts are capable of teaching math, what reason is there for this district's poor performance? We contend it's the same reason we've been espousing for three years - the one significant difference between Hillsborough County and the others.

We are the only one utilizing Voyages as the primary instructional resource in elementary mathematics.

The good news is that new math standards have recently been adopted by the State of Florida and districts are required to begin teaching them next school year. The bad news is new textbooks will not be adopted and placed in some classrooms until 2010. In the meantime, the district seems satisfied to continue to use Voyages as a primary resource.

As parents, we have a responsibility to ensure our children are receiving a quality education. By our school district's choice to support the Voyages program, they are ensuring that our children will not be receiving the best mathematics education possible.

Urge your school board members and school administrators to acknowledge the overwhelming evidence pointing to Voyages' deficiencies and to finally do the right thing for the children in our county - immediately discontinue the use of Voyages. Demand a quality math education for your child now.

Paula Meckley, Julia H. Miller and Anne E. Temple contributed to this article. The five women, collectively known as the South Tampa math moms, are members of a working group that has spent more than three years examining the math curriculum.

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