State school superintendent offers new math option

By D. Aileen Dodd

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia’s integrated math curriculum could be history.

Responding to parental complaints and the governor’s concern over graduation rates, state Superintendent John Barge on Thursday introduced a plan that would allow local school districts to choose how they will teach math.

Two years ago, the state collectively turned to integrated math, or accelerated classes that were introduced to make more students college ready, rather than traditional algebra, geometry and statistics classes. However, the faster-paced curriculum was largely blamed for the failure last May of 80,000 students on math final exams.

“We have seen through practice that some students are having trouble with an integrated delivery system,” Barge said. “Some of them don’t feel like they have the time that they need to truly master the concepts before they move on to another one.”

Parents were encouraged by the potential curriculum turnabout, or at least having math teaching options. Hundreds had complained to teachers, districts and the state that their kids were overwhelmed by the alphabet soup of binomials and quadratic equations fed to them in classes that didn’t adequately teach concepts.

Susan O’Brien, a parent from Mableton, said she has fought for her daughter’s education since the new math curriculum was introduced. Jessica O’Brien, an honors student and Harvard University hopeful, had grades that were straight A’s until taking accelerated Math II, which she barely passed.

“That is why I voted for John Barge at election time,” Susan O’Brien said. “One of his platforms was to get rid of this new math.”

Chris Byrne, a parent from Athens who works for the federal government, said he disliked the integrated math curriculum all along.

“I grew up in old school math, the algebra, geometry, trigonometry sequence, and it worked,” Byrne said. “What they have done with this curriculum is jumbled it altogether. It doesn’t give students what they need. They don’t get a full flavor of one math topic. They are going through material so fast students don’t have time to digest it before they move on.”

Under the superintendent’s proposal, districts will be allowed to offer integrated and traditional math simultaneously, teach traditional math only or retain the challenging integrated approach that involves Math 1 through Math III, plus a fourth-year option.

Integrated math was introduced by former Superintendent Kathy Cox, and was designed to expose students to advanced content sooner and enable them to better compete with peers nationwide for college entry. It has had the opposite effect.

“What we are seeing in the field is far too many students who are in 10th and 11th grade that are already off track for graduation because they fail to pass Math I and Math II,” Barge said.

The superintendent’s proposal will need the support of the state school board before it is offered to districts. An introduction to Barge’s plan said it was proposed as “a short-term solution to the challenges facing school districts as they strive to ensure that an optimal number of students graduate.”

When the new math curriculum was introduced in the 2008-09 school year, teachers across the state complained about having to change directions with little guidance or time to master lessons they were supposed to deliver to students.

Yet there are teachers, such as Mill Creek High math teacher Camille Larkin, who said that teaching algebra and geometry simultaneously instead of separately would become effective if given time.

“To me, the integrated course hasn’t been out long enough for teachers to get a feel for how the whole four-year sequence fits together,” Larkin said. “I know teachers have been struggling with it, but I still feel like we should give it a chance.”

Gerard Petty, a Henry County High School teacher, said returning to a traditional approach won’t be an easy way out for students.

“It’s going to just be a whole lot more for you to have to understand -- students are going to have to know the whole book,” Petty said. “I like the integrated curriculum because students aren’t exposed to a lot of the tedious work.”

Only 52 percent of students who took the Math II final exam in May passed, and many students in metro Atlanta schools who took the tests had barely passing grades, earning C’s and D’s for their districts, the state said. The freshman class, however, fared better on the Math I final exam, with 64 percent passing.

School board member James Bostic was concerned that gains made by African-American and Latin American students would suffer if it is was left up to schools to pick the math presentation.

“We have to be sure that these young people still have math skills so that when they go to work [or college] they can do the work that is in front of them,” Bostic said.

Returning to traditional math will still provide challenges, board member Linda Zechmann said.

“It is very important that we don’t have the perception of going backwards,” Zechmann said. “The rigor will be there. It is the same standards.”