Dear Editor

My 7th grade daughter brought home the following graded problem.

"The equation 10 = x - 2.5 is a special case of the equation y=mx+b.  Find the slope and y-intercepts for the equation: 10 = x - 2.5"

The solution, "slope=1 and y-intercept=-2.5", comes straight out of the Connected Math Project (CMP) -- a program rated as the best
middle school textbook after "rigorously" analysed by AAAS project 2061[1].

If none of the authors (5), reviewers (numerous, see [1]) and 160 teachers who field tested the program realized that 10 = x - 2.5 is a
vertical  line with no -intercept and the slope is infinite, maybe the problems with US math education lie with these "education experts" who
have misconceptions about math and cannot evaluate new textbooks "critically".

The math curricula and textbooks from Singapore and Hong Kong (both countries publish English textbooks) require ALL middle school
students in these countries to learn serious Algebra and Geometry. When a textbook which does not even include Algebra I curriculum by
eighth grade was rated as the "best" math program,
there is no hope that our students will be competitive globally in math by 2061.

Reference:
[1] Step 3 in "Six Steps Toward Science and Math Literacy"
by Gerald Kulm, Scientific American, October, 1999, Pg. 93.