COSTA MESA / NEWPORT BEACH : New Elementary Math Standards Proposed

The school board has hammered out new, broader math competency standards for elementary school students in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

The current program requires students to master concepts such as fractions and decimals and basic operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and estimation. Lessons are more complex each year.

The new curriculum, set for adoption Tuesday, builds on the old standards but adds exercises in functions (recognizing and predicting patterns), algebra, geometry, measurement, and statistics and probability. The new lessons help students develop computer skills as well, said Eleanor Anderson, director of curriculum and assessment.

Corona del Mar High School math teacher Steve Messenger encouraged the board to adopt district standards for all grades, and said some students are promoted without learning basics.

A task force established by state schools Supt. Delaine Easton is expected to report this month on whether children are taught applications of math early enough.

Once the report is out and the state selects new textbooks, the district will buy them.

“This would have been the year to adopt new textbooks, Anderson said, “but we have delayed that adoption because of the current controversy over math.”