That the Emerald City is home to one of the country’s foremost weather academics is very Seattle. Yet stylistically, the Long Island–reared Mass is anything but. A passionate “math activist” who would like to return to the days of calculator-free “explicit instruction” in elementary, middle, and secondary schools, Mass and a pair of co-plaintiffs currently have a lawsuit pending against Seattle Public Schools, in which they claim the District’s shift to a “Discovery Math” curriculum has widened the achievement gap between Caucasian and minority students. (A January court date has been set.)

“Instead of getting the answer right, it’s far more important to write an essay about your thought process,” says Mass of an instructional movement he claims has led to a severe deterioration of math skills among his collegiate students. “I’ve had students in my office crying because they’ve had to give up their dream of becoming meteorologists. They couldn’t pass the math. The most demanding aspects of my field are being dominated by people overseas.”