My son’s school recently got this program he is in fifth grade in resource room math and is a ld student. His problems are language based and from what I understand this program is awful for special ed kids according to his teacher. She went to the administration today to try to get a different series and a different math program for her ld kids but they said no way. As my son has to use this program any suggestions for me, the parent as I will have to deal with his frustration on hw that he probally will not be able to do. Any more thoughts on this program would be appreciated.
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Lisa in NJ
That’s exactly what the director of special ed in a county in Pennsylvania said — that hte program is simply not appropriate for most LD students. (It was Central Bucks district I believe.) Basically, you want to document that (DUH!!!) your child needs a different kind of education — that’s why he is in *special* education. If you have to make an analogy like trying to do the uneven parallel bars with no arms and needing adaptations, do it (even though it’s not really a good analogy — your kiddo has abilities but they don’t match this program).
I”d be tempted to present them with two options — the first being all the modifications they would need to do to Everyday Math (so have someone available to dictate all verbal responses, and provide a lot of extra practice and review on a daily basis because he needs more than is required), or… use a differerent program. WHat the end result could be is that yea, the teacher gets out the EVEryday Math book and waves it in front of them every day… so she’s “using” it… and then “adapts it” to meet their needs with the program seh wants to use.
IF the bottom line issue is that they don’t want to spend any extra money on materials for the special ed kids, that cna be a tougher battle — but if you know what it is, then you know that if you can find a way to get the materials you’re there. Does the teacher know how the logistics work?