Do the math first

The Seattle School Board has scheduled a meeting at 6 p.m. today to select a new math program for the elementary schools.

The decision would be made before new state standards are in place, before the new district superintendent is in her job and before Seattle voters have had a chance to realign the School Board. It would be best to delay this decision until those things are done first. Delay would come at a cost. Forty percent of fourth-graders are failing the WASL test in math, the scores have not substantially improved in three years, and there is a large achievement gap between the races. There is reason to hurry, but only if the district is hurrying to do the right thing — and that is not obvious.

Seattle has been using a reform-math program, which teaches through a discovery method, introduces a large range of topics in the early grades and requires writing out how to get the answer. It also teaches the use of calculators.

Its main replacement program, "Everyday Mathematics," is designed along the same philosophy, also using calculators. Its proposed $2.2 million purchase includes $90,000 to buy calculators for the kids.

There has been much objection to this sort of math teaching, with critics saying it is making Americans poor in math compared with kids overseas. Part of the proposal is to spend 5 percent of the money buying "Singapore Mathematics" books, based on the way math is taught in the nation with the highest test scores. Unfortunately, there would not be enough Singapore books for everyone.

Dividing the curriculum between two radically different math programs has all the look of a political compromise. The board should resist committing the district until new standards and new leaders are in place, and focus more rigorously on determining what works.