Thousands of Georgia’s teens are continuing to fail final exams as they struggle with the accelerated concepts of integrated math.
The latest evidence is the results to the End-of-Course Tests given in December, when 17,520 students flunked the Math I and Math II exams.
The state’s public school districts are likely to examine those scores as they decide whether to keep teaching integrated math to their high school students or return to more traditional methods.
Of the 20,679 students who took the Math I final in December, 42.6 percent failed it. That’s a 19.6 percent increase from the spring, when 114,005 students took the exam and 35.6 percent did not meet expectations. Small gains were made in Math II in December, but they included the scores of students repeating the course after failing it the first time.
The state Board of Education is scheduled to vote March 14 on a new set of traditional math courses that will give districts the flexibility to address failure rates. Districts soon may be free to choose whether to continue teaching integrated math, ditch it or offer both integrated and traditional approaches to freshmen in 2011-12.
Superintendent John Barge is driving the change to boost graduation rates. As many as 17 percent of juniors have at most one credit when they should be working on their third, state officials say.
Kathy Cox introduced integrated math when she was the state school superintendent to make Georgia students more competitive for college acceptance.
Cobb County mother Maureen Smith says it likely will have the opposite effect on her 16-year-old daughter, an honor student at Campbell High School.
“She’s an A student, but she’s gotten B’s in math on the grade-level course,” Smith said. “There are kids who are in AP classes that are failing that math.
“I have an engineering degree from Purdue, but I can’t help. I’ve tried,” she said. “They don’t teach it how anybody learned it. They need to go back to traditional.”
December final exam results may not influence some districts because fewer students take the test and they represent extremes. Students who take the final in December may have failed Math I or Math II previously, be on block schedules or are accelerated and are taking the math exam before progressingto advanced content, said Sandi Woodall, the state’s mathematics program manager.
Matt Cardoza, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said winter scores on the End-of-Course Tests don’t give a true picture of students who take Math I and II.
But some parents and educators are monitoring the results closely.
“The test will absolutely help districts chart the direction most of us will go,” said Matthew Winking, the math chairman at Phoenix High School in Lawrenceville. “In the world of high-stakes accountability, you have to look at your data.”
The average state Math I exam score fell from a 410.39, or 74 percent, in the spring to a 407.42, or 73 percent, in December. That’s a drop from a C to a D on many report cards.
Math II students didbetter. Of 24,818 students taking the Math II exam in December, 64.8 percent met or exceeded standards, compared with 52.3 percent in the spring. The average score in December was 76 percent, compared with 72 percent in the spring — a low C instead of a D.
Smith said her daughter received a 90 or 92 on the final and got a B in the class, ruining her straight-A streak, which could make her less competitive for the most selective colleges. She said traditional math should be made available to all students now who like to learn sequentially. “It’s the students that are in the class now that are really getting hurt,” Smith said.
Philip LaPorte, who has a daughter who is a junior at Chamblee Charter High School in DeKalb County, says colleges outside Georgia likely won’t understand what Math I-IV means on a transcript. That could hurt students, he said.
“To impose integrated math on every public school in the state was ludicrous,” LaPorte said. “You are asking teachers to teach a curriculum they are not familiar with, and now we have the results. They are disastrous.”
Some educators say failure is expected under a new curriculum and isn’t a good reason to scrap it. When Algebra I final exam scores in spring 2009 are compared with Math I final exam scores in May 2010, more passed Math I, said Brad Findell, president of the Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics. “Going back to traditional when they are in the middle of implementation is going to create chaos in the schools that have made some changes,” he said. “Give these changes a chance to take hold. ... I see this as progress.”
Woodall said the state’s math curriculum earned an A- from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which conducts education research.
“That says we are moving in the right direction,” she said. “It has not been a failure.”
Woodall said educator feedback on math options have been mixed, with about one-third each siding for choice, staying the course and switching to traditional.
Cobb County mother Felicia Scott, who is paying Tutor Doctor $344 an hour to help her son with Math III, hopes districts will seek comment before picking. “I would like teachers and parents to have a say,” Scott said.
FLUNKING RATE RISES
Here are the numbers on the latest Math I results:
20,679
number of students who took ?the Math I End-of-Course Test ?in December
42.6
percent of those students who failed the test
114,005
number of students who took ?the Math I End-of-Course Test last spring
35.6
percent of those students who failed the spring test
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