Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : New Math Program Prepares Students for the Workplace

Educators hope a pilot math program at Saugus High School emphasizing real-world skills over rote learning will add up to increased knowledge for students not bound for college.

The program, known as Math A, reflects a new focus by the school district and the California Department of Education to give students skills they can use in the workplace.

“About six years ago, there began to be a concern at the high school level that the students who weren’t going to college or doing so well were only getting arithmetic. And they were getting arithmetic pounded into them,” said Gary Wexler, director of curriculum for the William S. Hart School District that includes Saugus High.

Math A participants will work in groups on non-traditional activities such as playing games, developing surveys and constructing a timeline of historical events. While standard math classes often require students to take tests on their own, people at work are usually working with others and have access to whatever information they need to solve problems.

“They say more people are fired not because they don’t have the skills, it’s because they can’t deal with other people. This is more of that (socialization), just within a math framework,” Wexler said.

Proposed to begin in the fall, the Math A pilot will run for a year and include 70 to 80 ninth-graders or about two classes. Students’ progress will be followed through the year and in subsequent math classes.

“The major object of what we’re trying to do is so that every student has algebra by the time they leave high school,” Wexler said.

District trustees received an overview of the Math A pilot Wednesday night.

School officials were considering Math A classes for the 1994-1995 school year, but moved ahead with plans a year early after Saugus High Principal Cheryl Brown showed interest in the program, Wexler said. Also helping along the program were the efforts of a textbook company that recently published Math A materials and has agreed to supply free materials for the pilot.