ML School Board OKs new science, math curricula
Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake School Board president Eric Stones follows the proceedings at Thursday’s meeting.
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake School Board on Thursday unanimously adopted a new elementary school math curriculum, as well as a new science curriculum for the district’s middle schools and high school.
According to Superintendent Josh Meek, during his “listening tour” last spring after being named the district’s new superintendent, he heard a lot of concerns from elementary school teachers about the math situation in Moses Lake.
“I heard a lot of, ‘please give us help with elementary school math, we’re struggling,’” he said.
Chris Kalmbach, the district’s elementary math coach who headed up the year-long process to choose a new curriculum, explained the current math program is a Frankenstein’s monster.
“The current elementary math curriculum is a hodgepodge of different materials that we’ve kind of gathered from different source and we’ve stuck them all together,” he said. “It’s not covering everything, and there are a lot of holes for students.”
The team recommended Ready-Math, which is published by Massachusetts-based Curriculum Associates and meets Washington State standards. The program has books and online content, is customizable for individuals and groups of students, works with district’s initiative to ensure each student has a Chromebook computer, and is also available in Spanish.
“Ready-Math is the best fit for our school resources at hand,” Kalmbach said. “The core instruction is solid, but there is small group material for remedial and accelerated as well.”
The board approved a subscription to Ready-Math for the district’s K-5 students that is projected to cost $854,650 over six years, or $1.1 million over eight years — approximately $30 per student per year for roughly 4,750 students.
Board members also approved two science curricula based on newly created Next Generation Science Standards, an approach to teaching science authored by a consortium of states working with the National Research Council and the National Science Teachers Association.
According to Dorain Shank, a science teacher at Chief Moses Middle School, the standards emphasize a “3-D” approach to teaching and learning. Students won’t just learn science concepts and ideas, but also practices and ways those ideas and practices relate to other disciplines.
“All of the students are busy doing science, not just reading about it, and not just watching it done in a video or simulation,” Shank said.
“Students are expected to state a claim, provide evidence to support it, and explain their reasoning throughout all of the materials,” said Kristin Beich, an MLHS science teacher. “Students are actively engaged in trying to solve a problem.”
“The kids are the scientists,” Beich added.
The board approved STC, a middle school science curriculum produced by the Smithsonian Science Education Center, and HMS Dimensions, a high school science curriculum published by Massachusetts-based curriculum and textbook publisher HMH.
The science curricula are expected to cost around $358,000, and the books should last the district around seven years, though it has been 13 years since the MLSD last purchased middle school science books. Students will also have access to online update.
“It’s the same age as our students,” Shank said. “Pluto was still a planet, and it is still a planet in my textbook.”
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.