The Florida Department of Education has only approved one publisher for elementary math classrooms, and it uses a digital platform – STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning.
When the parent-teacher advisory committees met earlier this semester to make recommendations for math textbooks for the 2022-23 school year, the STEMscopes platform wasn’t among the top picks for several of them.
Why? Many classrooms don’t have a computer for every elementary school classroom. The lower grades may have only two to four computers in a room.
Also, teachers have shared with me concerns over the bandwidth of their schools, particularly in the more rural areas. High-speed internet north of Nine Mile Road in Escambia County is still a year or two away.
Forcing Escambia and Santa Rosa school districts to a digital-only platform will require teachers to revamp their math teaching lessons yet again. They have 78 days after the end of this semester to figure it out.
We want to hear from elementary teachers. Please share with us the challenges of teaching math to your students. Names, grades and schools will be kept anonymous. Email me at rick@inweekly.net.