Alpine's math selection committee seems to have made two second-place choices when it comes to next year's curriculum. The seemingly outlawed "Investigations Math" is still a winner among many of the members.

"I as an administrator walk into this gung ho for Investigations, and I will walk out here a strong supporter of Investigations," said Jane Friel, a principal involved with the district's math selection committee. "In places without standards-based math, change is happening at a snail's pace compared to what's been happening in Alpine."

During the Alpine school board's study session on Tuesday, Aleen Ure and Barry Graff presented the results from the math selection committee, and recommended Scott Foresman Addison-Wesley Math and MacMillan/Mc-Graw Math as the way to go for next year's curriculum, based on the state's approved math list. The school board will vote on the math program later this month.

No one at the meeting spoke against the Investigations Math program. In the past, some parents have cited the math program as one of their reasons for wanting to split the Alpine district in two.

Selection committee members assessed seven different textbooks -- including Investigations Math -- looking at how well it met the state's core, whether it met the district's philosophy and whether it was a standards-based approach to mathematics.

The 2007 edition of Investigations Math met the state's core about 88 percent of the time -- the highest of the books the committee looked at -- but it has yet to be added to the state's approved list. It can be used as a supplement, which the selection committee hoped schools would be able to do.

Ure and Graff said parents in the district had criticized Investigations because of the difficulty in parents being able to help with homework due to the lack of textbooks and focus on inquiry-based learning. Despite that, they felt that if given the choice, Investigations would still be the way to go, because of how well it met the core and how it challenges students.

"There is no silver bullet, there is no perfect way to teach the core," said Graff, the district's administrator for K-12 educational services. "But right now it does look pretty good."

Board member JoDee Sundberg said the decision gives her "heartburn" to think about.

Stories told at the meeting ranged from parents voicing their child's love of math with Investigations, and a teacher who enjoys seeing her students overcome obstacles in math.

"My concern is that a new math program would not be enough inquiry- or standards-based, and so in a sense we would be moving backwards," said Heather Steel, a curriculum consultant coach for the district. Steel was involved with the committee that chose Investigations about 10 years ago. "I feel like the options are too traditional. I would hope it would be possible to wait and see if the state fully adopts the new Investigations this spring, before we decide."

Although Investigations is published by Foresman, it is not on the state's list of recommended materials, so it was excluded from the committee's choices.

"Our ideal choice would have been Investigations and Scott Foresman," said April Leder, a member of the selection committee. "It wasn't easy to come to the second choice, but we wanted to give the people a choice because we told them we were going to do that."

Graff said they are hoping to order materials for next school year by the beginning of April, and it will be up to schools' committees to decide which textbook they want.

Brooke Barker can be reached at 344-2559 or bbarker@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.