Joplin R-8 expected to approve spending bargain $27,500 to send 65 teachers, principals to Eureka Math workshop

People always find it difficult to pass up a half-price sale and Joplin R-8 administrators are no exceptions.

At its February meeting, the Board of Education approved spending $24,000 to send 56 teachers and principals to a three-day professional development workshop on Eureka Math June 11-13 in Overland Park, Kansas.

Apparently, those 56 were not the only one clamoring to go to Overland Park, which is lovely that time of the year.

Superintendent Melinda Moss will present a request to allow an additional nine teachers and/or principals to go to Overland Park for a total of $27,500 when the board meets 6 p.m. today at the Memorial Education Center.








"The interest in taking advantage the opportunity was greater than expected," according to the documentation included in the board packet.

Eureka math is ranked among the highest programs for providing the rigor necessary to succeed in the fundamentals of number sense and application beyond the fundamentals. This professional development will increase the number of teachers having expertise in effective instruction. 

The seminar will be conducted by trained professionals from the modestly named Great Minds,which created the Eureka Math curriculum and claims that is the most widely used curriculum in the United States.

Great Minds is headed by Lynne Munson, and was once named Common Core,  Inc. While the organization had nothing to do with the creation of the Common Core educational standards, Common Core/Great Minds was established to provide curriculum that is completely in line with Common Core Standards.