South Cook News

A group of teachers, support staff and administrators at Elementary School District 159 in Cook County presented a new math curriculum for the district at a board of education meeting in July.

The new curriculum would include print and digital resources for students, and the option for parents and students to watch lessons online in a "math replay" video.

"This is a great resource for not only our students, but our parents because when students get home often they say, 'I don't remember what my teacher said. I don't remember what I'm supposed to do.' And math has changed over the years. And so this gives our parents in our community an opportunity to view videos of a lesson that was taught that day in order to support their learner at home," Lisa O'Donovan, math and science coordinator for the district, said during the meeting. 

O'Donovan says the committee started the process of choosing the new curriculum back in November 2021 and narrowed it down to their top four programs. They sampled lessons from the companies to take a closer look at their curriculum and the resources offered, plus set up meetings with the publishers for further discussions.

The committee wanted to ensure the curriculum they chose was in lighted with standards, researched-based and attentive to conceptual understanding. The group also looked at what each publisher offered as far as interventions, other options and assessments, O'Donovan notes. 

The committee's findings and samples of the curriculum and online materials were brought to all the teachers last spring. O'Donovan says the teachers provided feedback to get a consensus. The final recommendation was to choose the lessons by Reveval Math.