Los Angeles USD Adopts Technology-Based Math Curriculum
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Los Angeles Unified School District announced last week that it's adopting Pearson's enVisionMath California for all of its K-5 students. The district has 436 elementary schools and 27 independent elementary charter schools and centers, serving more than 302,000 elementary students.
Pearson's enVisionMath, which was introduced this January, combines a traditional curriculum with elements aimed at technologically oriented students, including animations and online visual learning tools. Authored by Randall Charles, former vice president of the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, the program provides personalized instruction using graphics, animations, and interactive learning tools to provide math education for a wide range of students, including special needs and ELL students.
The California edition is aligned to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Focal Points and California state standards, focusing on algebra building blocks and offering differentiated instruction, online editions, whiteboard-ready resources, assessments and prescriptions, and Visual Learning Bridge components for providing step by step explanations of the concepts.
"Across the nation, and especially in California," said Vicky Bush, Pearson's vice president for California, "there has been a call to introduce algebraic concepts before formal algebra classes, to do so at a very early age, and then to sustain the focus in every grade. The significance of the Los Angeles adoption goes well beyond just the elementary grades. It represents recognition of the need for a holistic approach that yields benefits all the way into college, where too many students require remedial math instruction."
LAUSD is the second-largest school district in the United States, with 878 K-12 schools, 1,190 independent K-12 charter schools and centers, and 194 other centers serving 694,288 K-12 students. Its total school district budget for 2007-2008 is almost $14 billion.
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About the author: David Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's online education technology publications, including THE Journal and Campus Technology. He can be reached at [email protected].
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