New-age math doesn't add up

Excerpted from the Seattle Times Newspaper.

It's called reform math, discovery math, constructivist math, fuzzy math. I think of it as new-age math, and believe it is one reason why last year nearly half the 10th-graders in Washington public schools failed the mathematics portion of the high-school graduation test. It is also one reason American kids do so poorly when measured against kids from Europe and East Asia.

If it's not working, why are we keeping it? If kids are supposed to be able to pass the 10th grade WASL in order to graduate, and the WASL is based on seventh-grade math, and half of graduating seniors can't pass the math portion of the WASL, a change is needed.

Suggestions for change come from "Where's the Math".

In this article, the author refers to "Saxon Math". Personally, I swear by it. I school my children with Saxon math, and they consistently score above the 95th percentile in standardized tests such as the California Achievement Test (CAT) and the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). That's after switching from Addison Wesley Math after only two years of unacceptable standardized test scores using their curriculum.