We had one man who took on the educational establishment when he self-published a traditionally-based algebra textbook in 1981. He had seen a similar situation of woefully low performance with his community college students in 1970 as a new algebra teacher after retiring from the military. His foray into the private halls of academic "authors" caused hateful attacks on his efforts to teach math to the child who had come from weak parenting and weak teaching. As a decorated bomber pilot, the warrior fought back hard. Their effort to destroy him exists even today, 19 years after his death. His name was John Saxon and he managed to build a K-12 math textbook publishing business worth an estimated $100 million. He kept declaring that "Results matter!" His opponents declared in return, "Equity matters!" Evidently, their goal of equity is being fulfilled today with fake grades being given to assure equity for all.
SAXON math ROCKS.
All three of mine used it, all got into their respective private universities in the honors programs, and all three were eligible to take Calculus right from the start, with no remedial math required.
Some of my kids liked the repetition that kept them from forgetting. Some disliked it because they already knew it so why are we doing it again.
As a math weakling I would have loved Saxon in school. No nonsense straightforward math.
You know our story. Saxon Math has all 3 of my kids in college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. Two had B.S. degrees in math by the age of 18.