Equity, standards, Pathways, and Options

Equity, Standards, Pathways, and Options 

Part 1

This past year and now into the next year I have had the opportunity to participate on the WI-University System Math Initiative.  The initiative is a multi-institutional collaboration of UW faculty, staff, and administrators working to improve student success by helping incoming students successfully complete their gateway mathematics course by the end of their first two semesters of study.  In addition, I am currently on the WI-State Mathematics Standards Revision team.  The overlapping concepts, along with striving for more equitable pathways for students while also increasing the quality of instruction, has caused my brain to spin, and it feels great!  For the first time in my 24  years in education I feel like the alignment of all the moving parts is happening.  We just need to convince everyone that the moment has arrived for math to finally make the needed changes we have been waiting for.

Although I was purely in an advisory role during the UW-University System Math Initiative, the results were very promising.  The creation of gateway courses:  College Algebra, Quantitative Reasoning, and Statistics allow the secondary schools to alter their offerings and standards alignment while truly, possibly for the first time, understanding the expectations of the post-secondary schools.  

For many years we have seen the issues in secondary math instruction.  Perpetual struggle, lack of interest, ongoing remediation and much more that we don't need to reiterate here.  This has happened not because there is a lack of quality instruction, not because teachers haven't kept up with the times (although in fairness there is some of that in all schools), but because students don't see the value of mathematics.  In most cases, they are correct.  Technology has advanced to make the computing of math obsolete.  This is not to say that pure mathematics isn't needed.  It is...for less than 5% of the population.  The very same population we have been focusing all of our curriculum on.  Sure, there are plenty of remedial courses but they are based on the same foundations of Algebra, Geometry and Algebra 2.  It is only after Algebra 2 that we begin to get creative with our course offerings.

 I am excited for math because we may now have the ability to change the entire paradigm in the above paragraph.  Since this is the first blog in what I expect is a series of reflections as the standards revision process starts, I will keep it short.  I wish to leave it with my early goals in the process.

I hope:

• we can eliminate several standards at the 9-12 level in mathematics further focusing our content.  The clear place to start is the + standards.  These are extensions of the CCSS and thus not a standard of instruction.  However, in addition to the + standards we need to rethink concepts like complex numbers, logarithms, etc...  Are these really for ALL students or for STEM students?  
• we can organize the 9-12 standards similar to the grade level standards in K-8.  My concern is it may direct districts to a specific set of pathways which may cause unintentional controversy in light of local control.  At minimum, I would like to see a more defined appendix that gives clarity to which standards should be taught by year.
• we can develop core years of math, through 10th grade allowing students to choose a pathway that includes STEM options that instructs some of the content in a normal Algebra 2 course after grade 10 or an assortment of other pathways that are not STEM related.
• we can either emphasize statistics or define a broader category of quantitative literacy that is integrated in year 1 and 2 of 9-12 math instruction.  Actually leading to its instruction.

These are purely initial thoughts.  We have a long way to go and honestly a very short time to complete it.  Stay tuned for updates.