L.A. Pushes Algebra as Integral to Education and Life

Teens: Stand firm in your refusal to remain conscious during algebra. In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra. Fran Lebowitz, author of “Social Studies”

Educators in the Los Angeles Unified School District are out to prove humorist Fran Lebowitz wrong. By emphasizing algebra’s practical applications in contemporary life, teachers are trying hard to put the sizzle into a subject that would seem to lack it.

Word problems, for example, long the bane of an algebra student’s existence, are being revised. Determining how long it would take a passenger train to overtake a freight train is passe. A new-age algebra problem would ask a student to figure out the percentage of Latino, black and Asian students on campus, or how much money can be saved if discounted prom tickets are purchased in advance.

The Proof’s in Employment Tests

Professionals such as engineers, architects and urban planners who use algebra in their jobs are being invited to speak to students. To prove that employers want workers with some algebra background, students are being given copies of employment tests and civil-service exams that feature algebra questions.

The district is also offering baffled algebra students a new source of help. “Algebra Tips,” a television show that acts as a video tutoring service, airs four days a week at 5 p.m. on the district’s television station, Channel 58 (KLCS). Topics of each show are prepared to coincide with material being studied by most Los Angeles district algebra students at the time.

The push to increase algebra enrollment started last fall. School district officials say their campaign was not prompted by math scores on standardized tests but by a variety of other factors.

The California State University system, as well as many other colleges, stiffened entrance requirements, requiring students to tackle higher-level math courses. Requiring more students to take algebra is, officials say, part of the district’s responsibility to graduate as many college-bound students as possible.

Officials said changes in the ethnic and socioeconomic makeup of the student population in the district require school personnel to play a stronger role as motivators since many new students come from families where college attendance is not viewed as a goal.

And top officials admit that the district is pushing algebra as a way to get its own house in order. For years, the high school math curriculum was cluttered with courses that did not meet college requirements. Many students who had the ability to tackle algebra and geometry were instead taking easier courses--such as consumer math and business math--to get A’s and meet district graduation requirements.

At the start of the school year, counselors were allowed to transfer bright students from less demanding math classes into algebra classes.

Letters stressing the importance of algebra were sent to parents. And every other month, math department chairpersons from junior and senior high schools began meeting at district headquarters to discuss new instruction techniques.

‘Not Just for the Elite’

“Algebra doesn’t have to be mysterious and frightening, and it isn’t just for the elite,” said Rosalyn Heyman, head of the district’s Office of Secondary Instruction. “Any student with a C in grade eight math should be ready for algebra in grade nine. Taking algebra should be the norm for our students rather than the exception.”

Heyman admits that the first results of what the district calls the “Think Algebra” program were not dramatic. About 46% of the district’s 94,000 ninth- and 10th-graders--the grades in which students usually take first-year algebra--were enrolled in the advanced math class. This is a 2% increase over last year.

Algebra is a mathematical system used to generalize certain arithmetical operations by using letters or other symbols to stand for numbers. It is the foundation for all higher levels of mathematics.

But for millions, algebra has never been simple. It is a confusing world of integers, absolute values, polynomials, square roots and quadratic equations.

Answers Are Secondary

“People have problems with algebra because, after eight or nine years of math questions that only want the right answer, they are suddenly told the answer is secondary to the process used to find the answer,” said Shirley Frye, director of curriculum for the Scottsdale, Ariz., School District. Frye recently spoke at UCLA to a gathering of math teachers.

Adolescent anxiety about algebra is often passed down to youngsters by parents who complain that they cannot balance a checkbook, said Rita Hayman, director of the Encino-based Math Experience tutoring service.

“If students have an anxiety or a fear about algebra, or if they discount it as something they won’t need in their later life, they enter the class with a built-in sense of failure,” Hayman said.

Educators say their revamping of the algebra curriculum does not mean the content will change. At the end of the first year, students will still be expected to have mastered translation of written phrases and sentences into algebraic expressions. They also should be able to solve simple linear equations and inequalities, substitute numerical and algebraic terms for variables in algebraic expressions and be able to show the operations they used to get the answer.

Mishmash of Problems

Over the years, algebra students have had to solve a mishmash of word problems that ask for the speed of trains, the number of hours it takes to fill a swimming pool and the distance between two cars traveling in opposite directions.

The redesigned curriculum in Los Angeles tries to make word problems more practical and more meaningful to students. Students are asked to use algebra skills to develop landscape plans, solve campus parking problems and develop methods to reduce hallway congestion between classes.

Educators have also revised the way they teach word problems in order to meet the realities of a typical Los Angeles district classroom in which there may be 39 students, including some who are not fluent in English.

“Lack of proficiency in English is no reason why a student cannot do well in math and cannot solve word problems,” said Arnaldo Trujillo, a San Fernando High math teacher.

One method used to teach math word problems to students who speak limited English is for teachers to write the question on the blackboard and then underline key words that will help students solve the problem.

Training for Teachers

The district sponsors workshops and training classes for math teachers who want to learn new ways to teach algebra. Teacher retraining is very important, according to John Lochheed, director of the Basic Mathematics Program at the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts, because of bad experiences the math community had in the 1960s with the abstract “new math” approach.

“We learned that you just can’t drop a new curriculum on people and expect them to embrace it, let alone teach it correctly,” Lochheed said.

“Teachers are going to have to be retrained and convinced that this new approach doesn’t discount traditional, and often times successful, algebra teaching methods,” he said.

COMPARING ALGEBRA PROBLEMS

Traditional Algebra Word Problem

A boat travels 18 miles downstream and back in 4 1/2 hours. If the speed of the current is 3 miles per hour, what is the speed of the boat in still water?

Examples of “Real Life” Algebra Word Problems

Suppose you work for an unstable company and your salary undergoes some changes over a three-month period. In each of the following situations, discuss how your salary at the end of the three-month period compares with your salary at the beginning of the period.

a. Your salary is cut by 10% and subsequently raised 10%.

b. Your salary is cut 20% and subsequently raised 25%.

c. Your salary is raised 10% and subsequently cut 10%.

Suppose you are going on a camping trip and need to purchase rope to tie down your tent. You need between 15 and 20 pieces that are 7 inches long and one piece that is 80 inches long. The rope may be purchased in multiples of 12 inches. How much rope should you buy to eliminate as much waste as possible?

There is money available to design, pave, paint and beautify the high school parking lot. How would you design the lot in a way that would increase capacity and make it safer? To illustrate your ideas, use tables and graphs, rate / time / distance formulas and other applicable algebraic principles.

Answers: 1) 9 miles per hour in still water 2) based on a three-month salary of $12,000: a. $10,800 and $11,880;b. $9,600 and $12,000; c. $13,200 and $11,880. 3) 16 pieces of rope. 4) There is not a single correct answer. Students would have to present their ideas in the form of a report.