The Bellevue School District held the first secondary math adoption committee meeting on Oct. 6, in search of a new high school math textbook for the 2010/2011 school year.

The committee is made up of teachers, parents, math curriculum representatives and administrators. As a unit, they will review and recommend either the Holt or Discovering textbook series for Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 as the district’s secondary instructional materials for math.

The committee will research best practices in math education, examine the alignment of each textbook to state and national standards, and analyze data generated from the textbook pilot. They will make a “by consensus” decision based upon evidence gathered during a six-month adoption process.

According to the district, the current high school mathematics textbooks, Contemporary Mathematics in Context (Core Plus), was adopted a decade ago and are outdated. Additionally, the state recently adopted new mathematics standards and Bellevue aims to be at par with the other districts across Washington.

The Bellevue School District began addressing the issue back in fall of 2008.

High school math teachers began meeting in October of 2008 to identify stakeholders, values and critical considerations to guide the adoption process. In January of 2009, a subcommittee of teachers representing each of the high schools, special education programs, and ESL, began to develop a scoring rubric for the purpose of selecting textbook pilots.

Nineteen textbook programs were reviewed and eight made the cut. Out of those eight, the subcommittee narrowed it down five programs based on the balance of procedural skills, conceptual development and problem solving contained within each textbook.

Teachers came together towards the end of last school year and decided to officially pilot the Holt Algebra and Discovering textbooks in the classrooms during the 2009/2010 school year.

A final recommendation will be made to the Instructional Materials Committee and Board of Directors in spring of 2010. New high school textbooks will be in the classrooms come fall 2010.

In the meantime, the district is in the process of developing a “secondary math adoption website” to provide the community with ongoing information. A secondary math informational meeting will be presented to the public in the near future and will provide parents and community members with an overview of the adoption process and information about the two math textbooks.

To follow the district’s progress in adopting a new secondary math textbook program, visit www.bsd405.org.