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Sayreville Board to pilot McGraw Hill math materials after teacher review
Summary
The Sayreville Board of Education discussed approving a selective pilot of McGraw Hill math materials across elementary, middle and high school grades; the pilot will use representative teachers, run through spring and return teacher feedback before any districtwide adoption.
The Sayreville Board of Education heard a proposal to pilot McGraw Hill mathematics materials after a teacher-led review of vendors.
Teachers from across the district reviewed five publishers and recommended a selective pilot of McGraw Hill materials for some elementary, middle and high school classrooms, Miss Grossman said. The pilot will include Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Geometry texts at the middle and high school levels and a limited set of elementary materials; participating teachers will meet through the spring and report back at the end of the school year.
The pilot is intended to evaluate alignment with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards and the New Jersey student learning assessment, Grossman said. She told the board the districts current program has been in place for about 14 years and that teachers used a rubric during the vendor review. "We really it was kind of across the board agreed that they wanted to look at the McGraw Hill materials," Grossman said.
Superintendent Dr. Lavey framed the pilot as a measured step: the district is testing materials rather than buying systemwide immediately, in part because top-tier programs can range substantially in per-student cost. "The top scoring programs range from about $80 a student to $179 a student," Grossman said while explaining why the district prefers a pilot and shorter contract terms. She added the district typically avoids long multiyear contracts and often structures purchases to limit multi-year commitments.
Board members pressed for context about whether instructional materials were the primary driver of low math scores. One board member asked, "Under your leadership, how many years will you let go before you decide something's not working?" Grossman and Dr. Lavey responded that many factors affect performance, including instruction, pandemic disruption and changes to the state assessment, and that the pilot is one step to gather evidence.
Parents raised questions about access and usability for families. A parent asked whether the new materials would be "parent-friendly" and easy for caregivers to use at home. Grossman said publishers typically provide digital licensing and demonstration videos through the districts Clever portal and that on-demand tutoring is a separate license the district currently holds.
The board did not take a formal adoption vote on materials at the meeting. The administration said it would return with findings after the pilot and will ask the board to approve any contract changes, and that an extension of the on-demand tutoring license will be placed on a future agenda.
The pilot will be limited to selected teachers and students across buildings; participating teachers will reconvene at the end of the school year to present evaluation findings.
