I also attended the Vista Verde session and attended the break-out session for the high school group. At one point it was a very heated discussion with one parent extremely upset that in his daughter's Northwood High School Honors Geometry class there apparently are no books and that the kids are basically teaching each other (don't know if that's true, but that's what he said). A couple of other parents chimed in and also complained about the book situation. The point the parents were making was that because of the lack of good book materials, the parents are limited in their ability to help, and many of the children are struggling.
Some math teacher at Woodbridge was doing our break out session and she said that they are going to get material from all different places, online, create PowerPoints, even mentioning Khan Academy. They said they are going to look at possible book material for next year starting next week. Of course this caused many parents to ask- why are we rushing into this if we don't even have the book situation/course content squared away.
I am ok with the integrated math and am surprised that only 7% of OC districts (compared to >70% in LA area and 100% at Ventura) are going on this Integrated Math Path. Apparently Newport Beach is already doing this. Tustin is not doing this and I don't think Capistrano will either.
I guess IUSD realized they really screwed up with last year's 6th grader's tests, saying that they are going to look at multiple criteria for getting bright kids onto the accelerated math pathway, instead of just relying on 1 test score. I support that new decision- they probably got inundated last year with irate parents complaining about that exam.
I guess current Middle Schoolers who are in 7th grade taking MSM 8 will be the guinea pigs of Math 1- we'll see how that goes.