As a weather reporter on Seattle television station KCPQ-TV, M.J. McDermott talks more about the Emerald City’s wet weather than about education. But in her spare time, McDermott has been a front-line player in the nation’s battles over the direction of math curriculum and instruction, explaining succinctly to Washington State parents why the curriculum used in the state’s schools is hardly worth paper or the time of students and teachers.

In this excerpt from her 15-minute video for the math reform group Where’s the Math?, McDermott shows why some math curriculum programs fail to show the basic steps kids need to know in order to move from computation to mastery. While real-life examples are important in providing students with relevance so they can get interested in learning math, kids can’t succeed with faulty methods for handling simple computations. Watch, consider and take action. And also, read my latest column for The American Spectator on the math instruction and curriculum aspects of the nation’s education crisis.