Ready or not, it’s algebra for every student
Starting this fall, every ninth-grader in the Antelope Valley Union High School District will take algebra or a higher math class. The district announced this week it will adopt a more rigorous math sequence in order to give more students options when they graduate, but some skeptics worry it will push some kids too far, too fast.
“Our mission is that the district is to provide students with options,” said David Vierra, the district’s superintendent.
The algebra requirement is part of a broader push to align curriculum at all eight comprehensive high schools in the district. “Whether a student lives in the north valley, south valley, east valley or west valley, we want to offer the same things,” said Michael Vierra, assistant superintendent of educational services and the superintendent’s brother.
The effort will focus on curriculum and instruction, making sure every student can take higher-level courses and ensuring that teachers are trained to lead them.
The high school district historically has sent fewer of its graduates onward with the minimum requirements for college than districts in the rest of the state. While most students will not attend four-year universities, education experts and business leaders often point out that today’s workforce requires many of the same skills as the college-bound set.
“There are no low-tech jobs anymore,” Michael Vierra said.
Of the 3,421 graduates in the class of 2004, only 765 — 22.4% — had completed the 15 courses needed to enter a University of California or a California State University campus. Statewide, just over 33% of the class of 2004 was prepared for college.
The required courses, collectively known as A through G, include classes in English, lab science, math, a foreign language, art, history and an elective.
To meet the math requirement, students must take three years of math, including geometry and advanced algebra.
Algebra is also a state graduation requirement, as well as part of the California High School Exit Exam and other standardized tests.
Much of the new effort is based on lessons learned within the district and backed up by outside research. Michael Vierra was principal of William J. “Pete” Knight High School when it began putting students who scored “below basic” on state tests in a special intervention program. The students took college-prep classes, plus a special tutoring class that focused on literacy and math skills. By the end of their first semester, the ninth-graders who started out behind were outscoring their peers who had not taken the intervention class.
“These were kids left behind in years past,” said Brent Woodard, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction. “So we’re saying let’s accelerate them, and they’ll pass.”
Woodard was principal of Palmdale High when that school decided to push more students toward college.
In three years, Palmdale has more than doubled the number of graduates going on to four-year colleges. Counselors say the whole culture has changed, and students now expect more from themselves.
Administrators insist the new course load will come with added help before, after and during the school day.
“We’re not going to just throw kids in classes and hope for the best,” Woodard said.
Five of the district’s eight comprehensive high schools already require freshmen to take algebra or a higher level math: Palmdale, Highland, Knight, Eastside and Littlerock. The three other campuses — AV, Lancaster and Quartz Hill — offer their own mix of pre-algebra, integrated math or other courses that prepare students for higher math.
Christine LeBeau disagrees with the new policy. A math teacher at Quartz Hill High and former trustee of the Westside Union School District — which feeds into the AV High School District — LeBeau worries that students and parents were left out of the decision to adopt the tougher standard.
In November, she and two other teachers resigned from the district’s ad hoc math committee in protest, saying the district had decided on a new direction before the group even met.
“I didn’t agree with the premise … that every student enrolling in high school as a freshman will have to take Algebra 1 or higher. I don’t think all the students we have coming into high school are ready to take Algebra 1,” she said. “This particular program doesn’t include parent input. It doesn’t give parents an option for students.
“I think we have to take a look at individual students’ needs.”
Almost every local elementary school district already requires eighth-graders to take algebra. Only the Eastside Union School District gives students the option of taking pre-algebra in eighth grade. LeBeau acknowledged this, but said even with algebra in junior high, some still arrive in high school unprepared.
“You don’t know if they’ve covered all of the algebra topics in eighth grade. You’ve exposed them, but how deep is their understanding? That’s something we need to take a look at,” she said. “Any time you place a student in a course they don’t have the background for, they’re going to be frustrated, and they’re not going to be successful.”
More than anything, Le Beau worries about pushing students down a path they haven’t chosen. Most students still do not go on to four-year colleges, and the veteran teacher worries about setting that standard.
The state Board of Education stands in the middle on the debate.
“The goal is to prepare all children to study algebra in eighth grade. However, it’s recognized that not all children will be ready by eighth grade, or even ninth grade,” said Donald Kairott, director of professional development and curriculum support at the state Department of Education.
“It’s better to have them well-prepared to take the course,” he said. “We don’t want children who are under-prepared, who are not prepared to be successful.”
Regular testing is key, Kairott said, to make sure students are getting the material every step of the way.
The trend is moving toward teaching algebra earlier. Kairott said more students are taking Algebra 1 in eighth grade than a decade ago.
One other obstacle could slow the math push, however. “We’ve had a chronic shortage of teachers who are well prepared to teach mathematics for decades,” Kairott said.
In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush called for more rigorous math education, and announced an initiative to train 70,000 more teachers to run advanced classes. The program also aims to bring 30,000 math and science professionals into the classroom.
Outside experts tend to favor more math, not less, and the more rigorous sequence.
“The problem is getting them to that level, but that’s a good plan,” said Genie Trow, a math teacher at Antelope Valley College.
Trow believes the debate isn’t over whether students are smart enough. It’s more an attitude problem. “As a nation, we have given ourselves permission to believe we can’t do algebra,” she said.
“These are skills that for many years were just considered basic ninth-grade skills. Something has changed, and I don’t think it’s the intelligence.”
She added: “You have to have permission from your peers to say you can’t do algebra. It’s got to be cool to say that.”
Starting with algebra gives students the chance to reach higher levels of math, like pre-calculus or statistics, before they get to college. That opens the door to science and engineering majors, who need to take far more challenging courses.
And all students learn how to analyze problems and do critical thinking, “and you can do that in any major,” Trow said.
Trow teaches a two-semester algebra course at AV College, and she noted that the extra time tends to help.
“I find my students that take the two-semester algebra say it really helps them,” she said. “Knowing that the people in it are not confident, it gives them a setting in which they are comfortable with their anxiety and can ask questions over and over again.”
The real test, Trow said, is getting to the point where students can solve problems on their own.
“If all you ever do is go to class and listen, you’ll never know if you’ve internalized how to solve the problem,” she said.
Mistakes are inevitable, she added, but the reaction to a missed problem is critical. The more confident students will assume they simply made an error in calculation and go back through the equation. Those who have been conditioned to believe they cannot do math often throw up their hands and quit. From there, it’s all downhill.
“I really believe that each of us has a natural math intuition, but we have to learn how to trust it and listen to it,” Trow said.