As schools push algebra into lower, middle-school grades, this creates a need at the top of the math curriculum in high schools for instructors who can teach higher math skills, as one Iowa school board is now finding out.
At its meeting Monday, the Waukee (Iowa) board of education had a friendly exchange with high school students who are worried that sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students now taking Algebra 2 will reach the district’s highest math offering when they’re sophomores, the Des Moines Register reports.
Between 10 and 20 years ago, many schools started introducing algebra in eighth grade. In fact, research at the time suggested that might be a good idea, especially for students who were near the middle performance band in math. Here, a report from the Southern Regional Education Board from 2002 even advises that placing students in low-level math classes in eighth grade just to pause them in the curriculum has never helped anyone.
The study of algebra, in particular, appears to serve as a gatekeeper to the college-preparatory track. Students who take algebra by the eighth or ninth grade are far more likely to take calculus in high school and pursue higher education than those who do not. Furthermore, taking algebra seems to produce almost as much achievement gain for low-achieving students as for their high-achieving peers. Results are especially promising when “average” students take high-level classes. Conversely, placing students in lower-level mathematics classes has never been shown to benefit them. This tends to suggest that accelerated curricula could make a difference for many middle grades students.
“We like those challenges as a board, and we anticipate math is not going to be the only place we’re going to have to face those challenges coming up here in the next couple of years,” the Register quoted board member Jerry Ripperger as saying. “The real volume is in those sixth-, seventh-, eighth-grade kids that are in geometry and Algebra 2.”
A good problem to have
The US Common Core, approved by Iowa and 45 other states, reserves the term “algebra” until high school, but make no mistake: compromises made in the development of the multi-state curriculum bring algebra concepts well into middle school.
Seventh graders are expected to be able to solve and interpret the results for systems of two linear equations, and eighth graders are charged with understanding the non-linearity of a graph of a parabola. Math concepts like these fall in the domain of “algebra” rather than “pre-algebra,” even if the printed curriculum avoids the word.
Strictly speaking, there’s plenty of math left in the Common Core for high school, math that doesn’t involve calculus exactly, but many students at the high school level do enroll in calculus courses rather than going into more advanced algebra.
Unfortunately, for the district, this means enabling those students to take the non-introductory calculus courses, which means teachers have to work at the school who can teach those courses. The Waukee district uses an online academy to teach non-introductory calculus, but many students told the board that online instruction made learning more difficult than it would be with a live instructor available, the Register reported.
As a result, the board is considering enlisting college professors to teach students who want to study more advanced mathematics and adding a full-time instructor at the high school to teach Calculus 3.
The benefits of Advanced Placement
One reason for the trend away from advanced algebra and toward calculus may be that the College Board offers advanced placement (AP) tests for Calculus AB and Calculus BC, while none are offered for advanced algebra. In other words, a high school junior or senior could take Algebra 5,000 and it wouldn’t get him anything in college unless he decided to major in mathematics.
On the other hand, taking AP calculus classes will get high school students college credit if they do well. This could reduce their college expenses by allowing them to avoid some introductory courses. So, that’s typically what high school students do who want to take advanced math classes in high school.
The article never mentions Advanced Placement courses, although the high school’s website suggests some AP courses are offered, giving students who take the test a GPA boost. The school reported a 63 percent increase in the number of AP tests administered in 2011-12 as compared to 2010-11, which is a positive sign.
In order to prepare teachers for AP courses, special training is offered by the College Board. Natalie Felt and Murph Hutson are listed as Calculus AB and Calculus BC teachers at the high school, but the courses themselves seem to be offered online and taught through a statewide, grant-funded academy:
Waukee High School offers online AP courses through the Belin-Blank Center’s Iowa Online AP Academy (IOAPA). This grant-funded program utilizes AP approved instructors via APEX software. All AP courses are not offered and the offerings change on a yearly basis due to rotating demand. Waukee students must enroll in these courses as a skinny or 5th block class due to the course structure.
