Pr. William Pupils Still Grapple With Math Test

"Let me put it this way: We're looking forward to sharing the results of the test with the School Board," said Pamela Gauch, Prince William's associate superintendent for student learning and accountability, who declined to release the Stanford results in advance. Last year's Stanford exams indicated that 80 percent of second-graders who used "Investigations" in the 2006-07 academic year were proficient in all 10 of the test's skill areas.

Kate Miller, a spokeswoman for Pearson, said in an e-mail: "Every year more and more schools across the country, and outside the U.S., too, opt for this program because its goal is to create 'mathematical thinkers' -- providing young children the basic grounding that they will need to be successful in higher level math. If 'Investigations' were not successful, why would Pearson continue publishing it year after year after year?"

Gauch, who said she and other top administrators were proud of the teachers' hard work, said it does not reflect poorly on "Investigations" that the percentage of advanced third-graders fell in the majority of the county's elementary schools.

"I am not going to look at that decline and say, 'Oh my God, we've got a problem here,' " Gauch said, adding that she wants to review the data further. "How many of the kids who scored advanced got perfect or near the top of advanced, and how many got it by one point? If you want to split hairs, you'd have to really look at the scores."

In Arlington, where "Investigations" has been used in all elementary schools since 2006, along with traditional math materials, the results have been mixed: The percentage of advanced students rose from 56 in 2007 to 57 in 2008. But the proficient students dipped from 35 percent to 32, according to the data.

"We would be foolish not to have supplemental resources," said Pat Robertson, Arlington's mathematics supervisor. "We do know that no program is perfect, but parents see it as a different way than the way they learned. It's kind of a rumor mill. Things get blown out of proportion."

Grant Lattin, the vice chairman of the Prince William School Board, said he is optimistic that teachers can learn techniques to improve scores and how students grasp the lessons from "Investigations."

"We're bringing all the lower-level math kids up, but we're not bringing up the kids already proficient," Lattin (Occoquan) said. "It's a matter of improving upon 'Investigations' and using different strategies to reach different levels of kids."