Alpine School District Superintendent Vern Henshaw recently referred to Investigations opponents as extremists, setting off a firestorm of calls for his resignation.
He apparently also incited Representative John Dougall to vent his frustrations on his blog about the situation. Rep. Dougall lives in the Alpine School District and I know, from personal conversations with him, has great frustrations with the education situation here. I don't think Superintendent Henshaw's comments helped things any (read his posting at the link above and tell me what you think!)
I also am quite certain, from discussions with many parents, that the Superintendent and most of the ASD School Board really don't understand (or better yet, believe) what is going on. So many parents have personally, or through tutors, supplemented their children's math education to overcome the inadequacies of an Investigations-only curriculum of the last few years. Board member Andrea Forsyth gleefully claimed that math test scores went up because of Investigations. Could it be, Ms. Forsyth, that this improvement was due to the work of parents, and not the curriculum you chose?
I remember a conversation with Board Member Guy Fugal where I asked him, after he professed great support for the Investigations curriculum, if he had any children in elementary school, and therefore had any personal experience with Investigations as a parent. He of course, did not, but he supported the program 100%. Perhaps if he had to play the unbelievably silly, unchallenging games with his children, that I had to, maybe, maybe, his tune might have changed.
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