Never doubt that a group of determined citizens can battle against a powerful establishment and succeed at getting great change.

Today we can celebrate a real triumph by regular Alberta parents and teachers over the Education Establishment.

#ableg #cdnoli

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About 10 years ago, Alberta parents started to notice big changes in the way math was taught.
Many kids couldn't learn math this new way. Parents were baffled as well.

What the parents didn't know is that a powerful group of Discovery Math advocates had taken over.

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The Discovery Math faction froze out actual math professors and teachers, and pushed their new way of teaching math on our schools.
They claimed their new discovery methods were scientifically proven. But when math experts dug in, they found these claims simply weren't true. 3/x

Parents knew none of this. All they knew is was their kids could not multiply 5X8 by Grade Six. That kids were struggling with basic arithmetic. And soon international studies showed Alberta's rate of innumeracy had doubled. Our most vulnerable learners were hammered hardest.4/X

Parents took action. Enrolment in costly, extra math classes like Kumon exploded outside of school. But that left a lot of kids behind. It created two-tier education. We needed our schools to return to sound and effective math teaching.
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A real leader, a small town AB family doctor, and a refugee from Vietnam who owed much to our great education system, Dr Nhung Tran-Davis stood up as a champion for parents and kids. Thousands of parents & teachers joined her call for change.
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Best of all, many math experts also joined with Nhung. One of them was Vladimir Troitsky from U of A.
When the Discovery Establishment wrote off Nhung's group as know-nothing parents, math experts like Troitsky, Anna Stokke, Cornelia Bica, Robert Craigen & others fought back.7X

Rachel Notley and Dave Eggen of the NDP listened to Nhung, parents, teachers and the math experts. The NDP brought in some important K-9 math reforms, moving away from the botched Discovery Math program.
I feel real gratitude to Eggen for that. 8/X

Jason Kenney's UCP also listened to Nhung and her group, so much so that they decided to champion her cause, our cause. The UCP vowed to get rid of the worst excesses of Discovery Math, if elected. It was a big moment for kids and parents. 9/X

In power, Kenney named Nhung to his first big public panel on fixing our education system and she had a powerful impact on that group. Now Prof. Troitsky has been asked to step up and help push forward on fixing math curriculum. It's a big job. It's complex. I wish him well. 10X

Dr Nhung Tran-Davies and Prof Vladimir Troitsky are both immigrants, both drawn to the hope and promise of our province. Now they are giving back in a huge way. Now they are standing up for all us.

They have nothing but my admiration.

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