Textbook giant Houghton-Mifflin has aligned its math books with federal “Common Core” standards. The books are selling well even though, as Twitchy founder/CEO Michelle Malkin demonstrated today, they are replete with jargon and mistakes.
To get a flavor of what the books are like, a good place to start is the publisher’s website:
What a piece of #commoncore gobbledygook this is from Houghton Mifflin. Just read it: http://t.co/IumqZhdZ
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 14, 2013
.@TruthinAmEd Note the typo in the first sentence on Houghton Mifflin's website: "empower your all of your students."
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 14, 2013
.@TruthinAmEd And note the bizarre capitalization of "Master" — "to Master the Common Core State Standards" #commoncore
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 14, 2013
Yes, Houghton Mifflin's "Saxon" math textbook promoters spelled "derives"…"derrives." That's three typos/errors==> http://t.co/IumqZhdZ
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 14, 2013
Even a math teacher wasn’t able to decipher Houghton Mifflin’s gibberish:
@michellemalkin I'm a teacher of math (not Saxon) and have no idea what that says.
— Mike J B (@mjb_r) February 14, 2013
Punctuation and spelling errors on the website are easy to fix, and Houghton Mifflin was quick to assure Malkin that it will do so:
@michellemalkin Very unfortunate errors. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We are correcting these right now.
— Houghton Mifflin (@HMHCo) February 14, 2013
But Malkin was just getting started. It turns out that Malkin’s 7th-grade daughter is using Houghton Mifflin’s slickly-produced Algebra 1 textbook, which contains even more jargon and errors than Houghton Mifflin’s website.
@JillMayfield @TruthinAmEd The new Algebra I has been a nightmare in our house. Slogging through…
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 14, 2013
.@HMHCo Ok, now that I have your attention, I will now be sending you errors we've found in the Algebra 1 student edition 2009. #commoncore
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 14, 2013
.@HMHCo See Lesson 65, Number 19, Algebra 1 student ed., 2009. See attached. pic.twitter.com/aQKv3wgK
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 14, 2013
Yes, the textbook authors misspelled the word “principal.”
.@HMHCo Now compare what you put in the answer key (WRONG) with the right answer we had to teach our daughter==> pic.twitter.com/V9wJ8dJW
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 14, 2013
.@HMHCo Here's another one from Algebra 1, student ed., 2009. Lesson 57, No. 18. Here's the problem: pic.twitter.com/Tpf0Lhqv
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 14, 2013
.@HMHCo And a comparison of answer key with what we think is a better answer==> #commoncore pic.twitter.com/qMvdlUt8
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 14, 2013
.@HMHCo Ok, 1 more. This 1 is REALLY embarrassing. Again, it's "Saxon" Algebra 1, student ed. 2009. Lesson 57, 15b. pic.twitter.com/YIqGaaYL
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 14, 2013
Malkin was careful to distinguish between the old Saxon books, which were excellent, and the new version published by Houghton Mifflin in 2009 (more than a decade after John Saxon’s death):
@JillMayfield @TruthinAmEd I'm talking about the new books, not old editions, which many good charter schools and homeschoolers still use.
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 14, 2013
@goqivana @TruthinAmEd My Hillsdale Academy friends say Old Saxon supplemented with Singapore Math is a good way to go.
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 14, 2013
@RedBrightandTru @AllenCPaul @HomeschoolDaddy Full "alignment" is the agenda. Those old editions are endangered speciees. #commoncore
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 14, 2013
This is what the new book, which is crap, looks like:
This is what the old book, which is outstanding, looks like:
Houghton Mifflin offered Malkin the opportunity to discuss the matter further, but has yet to acknowledge any of the errors Malkin documented:
@michellemalkin Thank you so much for your input. We would be happy to DM you an email address to discuss further.
— Houghton Mifflin (@HMHCo) February 14, 2013
Related:
Michelle Malkin, “Fuzzy math: A nationwide epidemic”
Michelle Malkin, “Everyday Math = junk”
Michelle Malkin, “Jaime Escalante, R.I.P.”
Michelle Malkin, “Why Johnny can’t do math (Update: or English.)”
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