Posted: Friday, October 19, 2007 1:00 am | Updated: 11:49 am, Wed Nov 25, 2009. By Scott Goss
In about two months, a committee of 40 people will lay out a map charting a new direction for math instruction in Cecil County public schools.
In the meantime, details from a commissioned report on the county's high school math curriculum could indicate the magnitude of the changes that lie ahead. The report recommends not only doing away with the textbooks used in some high school classes, but also suggests a redesign of the county's math instruction altogether.
Last week, county administrators publicly presented the report's final recommendations, which include replacing the textbook series on which most of the high school math curriculum is based.
The full version of the 57-page report released days later is highly critical of the county's current high school math program, citing its weakness as one of the reasons less than 17 percent of county residents over the age of 25 held a bachelor's degree in 2000.
The high schools use the "Integrated Mathematics" series published by McDougall-Littell for algebra I, geometry and algebra II courses.
The report describes the textbook series as an alternative to a more traditional, single-discipline approach that weaves various math subjects together so that "every year, for three years, students study topics from these different branches of mathematics."
The series, however, is so lacking in follow-up examples and practice problems that county teachers and administrators have had to develop thick binders of supplemental material, according to the report.
"Generally, we find the size and makeup of these supplements to be very inconsistent and expect that they would be difficult for students to use," the report states. "It seems it might be more efficient to find a textbook that needs less supplementation."
Further, the report finds that higher-level math courses offered in county high schools appear to be designed to address gaps in students' algebraic knowledge and skills rather than teaching the higher-level concepts generally associated with courses such as trigonometry and calculus.
Those criticisms are particularly poignant, given the county's long-term plan to provide local students with a realistic opportunity to take advantage of the high-paying science and technology jobs many believe will become available with the future growth at Aberdeen Proving Ground.
Public school administrators have been working with Cecil College for years to plan a seamless 16-year education pipeline in which public schools provide students with advanced preparation for acceptance into Cecil College. The two-year school, in turn, would offer courses that mesh with those offered at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, which recently signed an agreement to open a satellite campus here.
The report, however, suggests that the public schools' math curriculum is the weak link in that pipeline and could leave incoming students without the math background UMBC expects.
The report notes, for example, that the test Cecil College uses to place incoming students in the appropriate math course places more than 50 percent of county public school students in the most basic class.
Bonnie Tighe, one of the report's authors and a math professor for 20 years, wrote that the biggest problem she encounters every semester is new students with no grasp of algebra, geometry and trigonometry concepts.
"New university students are overly reliant on their calculators and often expect to be given a series of steps to carry out, rather than to think about a problem that is to be solved," she wrote. "At UMBC, virtually all mathematics professors do not allow the use of calculators."
The report later concludes that the high schools' textbooks and curriculum de-emphasize algebraic concepts and fail to adequately prepare students for college coursework.
It also recommends specific, traditionally focused and single-discipline textbooks for each of the math courses that currently use the Integrated Math series.
Whether those textbooks will be considered, the extent of the county's math reform efforts and the timeline for implementing those changes are to be determined by a 40-person math reform committee appointed by central office administrators.
The committee is tasked with choosing which of the report's recommendations to follow and developing a plan for implementing those reforms.
Carolyn Teigland, the county's top educator under Superintendent Carl Roberts, said she has no concerns about the size of the committee, which includes 15 teachers, 10 central office administrators, five parents, five students, four school-based administrators and one professor from Cecil College.
"We have experience in managing large committees and a lot of the work will be done in sub-groups," she said. "Our intent was to include a broad base of stakeholder groups from the start."
Teigland said she expects the committee to release its action plan before the end of 2007.sgoss@cecilwhig.com
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