FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 25, 2018
Oklahoma State Board of Education votes to add Success with OAS Mathematics textbooks to state-adopted list
OKLAHOMA CITY – At the request of 11 school superintendents from around the state, the State Board of Education unanimously voted today to add the Success with OAS Mathematics textbooks for Kindergarten through 7th grade to the state-adopted textbook list.
The State Textbook Committee approved the 8th grade Success with OAS Mathematics for adoption on Nov. 17. State law allows superintendents to petition the Board for additions to the list of state-approved instructional materials.
“These books written and published in the same manner by the same Oklahoma team focused on the Oklahoma Academic Standards,” Achille Superintendent Rick Beene explained to Board members. “Since our teachers have used Alpha Plus assessments, training and data for years, we know their tools are high quality and always aligned to state and federal requirements.” Achille is a PK-12 district in Bryan County that had long struggled academically and now scores high on state accountability measures.
Another school that has worked with Alpha Plus for many years and where teachers are using Success with OAS is Flower Mound Public School. The PK-5th grade school in Comanche County had been low performing but, in 2015, was named a National Blue Ribbon School.
“What I have found with Alpha Plus products is that they are specific to Oklahoma students’ success,” said Dax Trent, Flower Mound superintendent. “Our students used the field-test books last year and the fifth grade performed among the top schools on the 2017 state test in math. No other curriculum has an Oklahoma-only plan.”
Alpha Plus Educational Systems, the state’s premier school improvement firm, published its Success with OAS Mathematics series last fall and books are being used today in schools around the state.
Alpha Plus CEO Jan Barrick began working with Dr. Edna Manning, founder of the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics (OSSM), and Dr. Frank Wang, renowned math textbook publisher and current president of OSSM, nearly two years ago to develop this unique teaching and learning resource.
“We found successful Oklahoma teachers to write the books, relied on our own assessment experts to edit them, and the cover artwork was provided by Oklahoma artist Joy Richardson,” Barrick explained.
Barrick says her team is understandably proud of Success with OAS and its Oklahoma connections. The textbooks are being printed and bound in Oklahoma City and shipped from the Alpha Plus office to schools around the state.
“After 20 years of developing tools that help Oklahoma schools improve student performance,” Barrick said, “teachers started asking us to realign our Prepare to PASS series of books to the new standards. We started with math because it was clear the OAS was very different from the PASS standards required of public schools for 20 years.”
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Founded in 1986, Alpha Plus Educational Systems has been on a mission to improve student achievement. Since 1992, Alpha Plus has always used materials and data aligned to the current Oklahoma standards. Jan Barrick and the Alpha Plus team continue leading the way with cutting-edge curriculum and teacher training that is turning around schools across the state. For more information on Alpha Plus, visit their website at alphaplus.org or call the office in Oklahoma City at 405-842-8408.