Math Instruction Debate Moves On to Middle and High School

The fireworks over math education move from elementary school to middle and high school this week when the State Board of Education, under a legislative mandate, will vote on standards for grades eight through 12.

In some ways, this debate will mirror those that have occurred already--focusing on how much emphasis should be placed on memorization of formulas and calculating and how much on understanding the larger concepts that explain why the formulas and calculations work.

But a hot issue unique to the upper grades is a recommendation from the state standards commission that would make the traditional sequence of higher-level classes--algebra, geometry, algebra II--more or less obsolete.

The 21-member advisory panel, the Commission for the Establishment of Academic Performance and Content Standards, supports combining the ideas from those three courses in a series of blended--or integrated--courses that students would take between grades eight and 10. In making that recommendation, commissioners said they took their cue from how math is taught in countries such as Japan, where students far outperform their counterparts in the United States.

But in a preliminary vote last month, the Board of Education--which has the final say--decided that the state should not dictate that school districts overhaul their math programs. Most districts now follow the traditional course sequence starting with algebra.

“The board is not saying that integration is bad,” said Bill Lucia, executive director of the state board. “We’re just saying . . . we’re not going to mandate it.”

Further souring the board on the idea was the acknowledgment by commission officials that they had not collected any research data to support such a change.

Also expected to spark controversy is the question of exactly how much math it is reasonable to expect all high schoolers to learn. The commission’s draft of the standards anticipated having all students studying elementary algebra, geometry and the bulk of advanced algebra. But some board members worry that is unrealistic--given that only one in three students now passes even geometry.

The board is to vote on the higher grade standards Friday.

The board last week endorsed controversial standards for kindergarten through seventh grade that were characterized as a return to basics, emphasizing drills--and getting correct answers--while discouraging the use of calculators.

Board members said those elements had been neglected in recent years in an attempt to broaden math’s appeal.