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All Kindergarten and Elementary School Students Can Use Widely Successful
Pedagogy
Singapore, 18 December 2007 - In a major breakthrough, the entire US state of
California's Kindergarten and Elementary school students have been granted access
to a series of Mathematics textbooks and workbooks created in Singapore.
The series - Earlybird Kindergarten Mathematics Standards Edition and Primary
Mathematics Standards Edition for grades 1 to 5 - is the first Asian content to be
approved for use anywhere in US schools.
The textbook and workbooks are adapted from the Primary Mathematics Project (3rd
Ed) series that was co-published by leading education publisher Marshall Cavendish
and the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore.
The estimated market size for the Primary Mathematics Standards Edition series
alone is more than three million students.
The Primary Mathematics Standards Edition series stands out for its lucid, yet
mathematically sound concepts. Designed with colourful illustrations and carefullydefined
problem sets, the series helps US students to achieve proficiency in
Mathematics.
The series, which was used as the core Mathematics curriculum in Singapore
schools for twenty years, has been identified as one of the key contributing factors to
the success of students in learning Mathematics.
The strong performance of Singapore students in Mathematics was evident in the
1995, 1999 and 2003 TIMSS (Trends for International Mathematics and Science
Study) studies, where they consistently achieved top rankings in the global study,
conducted every four years.
A study of Singapore Mathematics conducted by the American Institutes for
Research (AIR) for the U.S. Department of Education (released in January 2005)
concluded, "What the United States needs overall are the sound features of the
Singapore Mathematics system."
In studying several different American school districts that were experimenting with
the programme, including the Montgomery County Public Schools, AIR researchers
found that "Singapore Mathematics textbooks can produce significant boosts in
achievement."
According to the AIR report, the Singapore texts "provide rich problem sets that give
students many and varied opportunities to apply the concepts they have learned."
How It Came About
The Primary Mathematics Project series was first created in 1982 by the Primary
Mathematics Project Team, Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore, and copublished
by Marshall Cavendish.
"Working on this project closely with SingaporeMath.com Inc, the sole distributor of
the Primary Mathematics series in the US, is an excellent opportunity to establish our
footprint in international markets," said Mr. Ling Guan Heng, General Manager,
Marshall Cavendish International (Singapore) Pte Ltd.
"The current endorsement will strengthen our efforts of bringing the best in learning
and education to the United States particularly California," he added.
Mr Jeffery Thomas founder, SingaporeMath.com Inc, said that mathematicians in the
US have been advocating the "back to basic" Mathematics over the past two
decades.
"They appreciate the sound features of the Singapore Mathematics curriculum which
is proven to boost the achievement levels of US elementary students. This is the
strongest argument that convinced us to partner with Marshall Cavendish for
facilitating the adoption of this series in California," he added.
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