Education vendors have asked City Comptroller Brad Lander to investigate whether the Department of Education's purchase of the controversial “Illustrated Mathematics” curriculum unfairly circumvented bidding rules.
In a Nov. 26 letter obtained by the U.S. Department of Energy, Sean Mulcahy, senior vice president of New Jersey-based Savas Learning Company, wrote, “The DOE has announced that the $34 million NYC Solves initiative will “It appears that no procurement process was followed before selecting Illustral Mathematics.” post.
“While multiple curriculum companies would have had the opportunity to submit proposals, it appears that the DOE chose Illustrated Mathematics without a competing bidding or procurement process,” the competitor's letter said at the outset. It's dark. Politico reported.
Mr. Lander declined to comment, but sources told the newspaper that his office has no record of any current or future contracts with Illustrated Mass, published by Imagine Learning.
Mayor Adams and then-chancellor David Banks announced the launch of New York City Solves in June to address the fact that half of students in grades 3 to 8 will be underperforming in math by 2023. .
The initiative began by piloting Illustrated Mathematics for Algebra in 265 high schools, but many teachers were disappointed with the well-thought-out lesson plans, strict schedules, and the ability for students to work in groups. He hated having to “discover” math problems and solve them with little input from the teacher.
Despite the citywide drop in Algebra 1 Regents exams this year, the DOE mandated the use of illustrated math in all but six of its 420 high schools.
The DOE said in a statement Saturday that it was “in compliance with all procurement policies and procedures” and evaluated Subas among the companies that responded to a public “request for information” regarding the math curriculum.
The DOE did not mention competitive bidding on the algebra curriculum.
