The debate over the best textbook to use for math instruction will get a public airing in Bellevue Feb 24.

A group of parents have organized a math night from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Wilburton Instructional Service Center, 12241 Main St., in the Rainier Room. Sharon Peaslee, one of the organizers, says the district's math adoption committee has been invited to speak, and community members can examine and discuss both Holt and Discovering, two textbook series under consideration for use in Bellevue high schools.

The district's math adoption committee is scheduled to make a decision soon on which textbook series to adopt.

After we ran a story in Sunday's paper on the math textbook wars, we heard from a few readers who wanted to know more about how the books stack up. A few years ago, colleage Linda Shaw's story, "Educators take different routes to get back to the basics in math," included a look at two textbooks that took different approaches to math. Here's a PDF that looks at reform versus traditional math.

What do Discovering and Holt textbooks look like? From Key Curriculum Press's Web page, here's a link to a chapter on linear equations, from the company's Discovering Algebra I textbook.

(When we blogged about the textbook wars two weeks ago, one of our anonymous commenters, who identified him or herself as a professional mathematician, wrote in favor of inquiry-based math, but described Discovering as a badly-executed approach to inquiry math. "I read the on-line sample chapter (on 'recursive routines'). Recursive functions are my speciality, and even I didn't understand this chapter, and in as far as I did understand it, it was wrong. Even if it had been right, these are not the ideas school students need to learn at this age.")

We couldn't find a PDF for the Discovering geometry book, and we didn't find a PDF for Holt's Algebra textbook. But here's a link to a student chapter of Holt's geometry edition.

The state Superintendent of Public Instruction's office has recommended just one textbook series for high-school algebra and math: Holt Mathematics. If you want to know more about why Holt was selected, you'll find that report here.

Last week, we talked to people at the state Board of Education, the state Attorney General's office and the state superintendent's office, all of whom talked about the importance of "local control" -- the idea that a district knows its own students and populations best, and is in the best position to pick a textbook that matches what the students already know.

"No one knows their own students better than the local school districts and boards -- we're not all the same," said Ron Thiele, the associate superintendent in Issaquah. The Issaquah School District is also on the verge of picking new textbooks for high-school math.

Issaquah favors the Discovering series, but Thiele says he doesn't think there's much of a difference between the two approaches. "Ironically, one of the reasons our district picked Discovering math is because it's considered a balanced curriculum," he said. "It (Discovering) is not like some crazy hippy math. And Holt is not some boring kill-and-drill program, either."

On the other hand...

Peaslee, who's the director of development of a Bellevue tutoring business, Fast Track Math, says she gets a lot of business from students in the Lake Washington School District -- a district that has been using Discovering math boooks for several years. Peaslee says she knows some Lake Washington graduates who floundered when they went to college, and ended up changing their major from a math-oriented subject, because the math instruction they received in high school didn't adequately prepare them for college math.

We also heard, by e-mail, from the parent of a Ballard High student, who said her daughter is failing advanced algebra. Seattle is using the Discovering textbooks for algebra and geometry, and the reader writes that "what is missing from Discovering math is the GUIDED INSTRUCTION."

"I find this whole thing to be pretty fascinating," Thiele said. We do, too. Share your thoughts in the comment section.