There’s a math problem in New York City.
Less than half of the city’s children passed the state Algebra 1 Regents exam last school year, after the Education Department implemented a plan. Controversial new math curriculum critics has exploded As “a complete disaster”.
According to the state Department of Education, only 46.8% of Big Apple high school students tested “proficient” on the exam – a steep 9-point drop from last year’s 56.2% passing rate.
The sharp decline was overlapped by the city’s DOE introducing a new curriculum known as “graphics mathematics” in 265 of the city’s 420 high schools.
Under the new blueprint, teachers follow strictly written and fast-paced lesson plans, where students working in groups are expected to tackle problems and “discover” answers with little input from teachers.
The curriculum does not cover everything tested on the Regents exams.
A high school teacher who taught the new curriculum last year told The Post, “It’s alarming that we work for an agency that mandates illustrative math, when the data now officially shows that “That’s how badly it affects our students.”
“Why don’t these people care about our children?”
The illustrative math curriculum, which the DOE said most of its high schools are adopting for algebra this year, is part of the $34 million “NYC Solves” initiative. launched To boost the score lagging under former chancellor David Banks.
Ninety-nine middle schools in every borough except Staten Island are also now using the curriculum in their classrooms.
The DOE would not disclose which schools participated in the pilot program, but some teachers whose students served as guinea pigs last year told The Post over the summer that their Algebra 1 test scores declined. Is.
In southern Queens, where all but one of the district’s 29 high schools participated in the pilot, Superintendent Josephine Van-Ess Said of students Average pass rate decreased From 59% to 45% on the June Regents exams.
A second high school teacher tearfully said that declining performance on the algebra test highlights the urgent need for the DOE to “involve teachers in the process of setting new curriculum.”
Meanwhile, the disappointing numbers are raising red flags for parent leaders.
“To me when you see results like that after a year, it means you’re going in the wrong direction and you should make adjustments,” said Deborah Crouse, president of the Citywide Council on High Schools.
Bobson Wong, a teacher at Bayside HS in Queens and co-author of “Practical Algebra: A Self-Teaching Guide,” said Illustrative Math offers a lot of “interesting problems and approaches,” but he criticized the DOE’s order that Teachers work rigorously. Follow the packed curriculum exactly as written.
Even more troubling, he said, is that many of the concepts on the Regents exam are not covered in Illustrative Math.
“How do they justify using a curriculum that is not up to standards and why are teachers not allowed to modify this curriculum?” asked Wong, who did not participate in the pilot.
The DOE noted in an instructional guide that many of the concepts tested on the Regents exam such as unit conversions, polynomial equations, and sequence visualization are “not adequately” covered by mathematics. This forces teachers to somehow squeeze lessons on these additional subjects into their already tight calendars.
DOE spokeswoman Nicole Brownstein attributed the poor algebra test scores to changes in the Regents tests, noting a statewide trend of poor performance as well as the need for teachers to adapt to teaching a new curriculum.
“Other municipalities that have instituted this change have seen test scores increase after a few years of implementation, and we expect to see the same here,” he said.
Additional reporting by Deirdre Bardolph
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