California districts moving to new ‘integrated’ high school math pathway
This fall 9th-grade students in virtually all California high schools are taking math classes aligned with the Common Core standards. But for many of them there is an additional twist: they are embarking on a sequence of courses that represents a significant departure from how high school math has traditionally been taught in California and the nation.
Every district has had to decide whether to stick with a “traditional” sequence of courses in grades 9-11 (Algebra 1, followed by geometry, then Algebra 2, with some probability and statistics in each course) or adopt a new “integrated pathway” that combines and re-orders content from those courses in a three-year sequence.
That sequence is typically simply called Math I, Math II and Math III. Each course includes algebra, geometry, probability and statistics that are “integrated” with each other.
Regardless of which one they embrace, many teachers, schools and districts have been scrambling to find appropriate textbooks and supplemental materials, develop lesson plans, and provide professional development to teachers aligned with the new standards.
The state does not keep track of which approach districts are adopting. But an EdSource review of the state’s 30 districts with the largest high school enrollments shows that the traditional approach – Algebra 1, geometry, Algebra 2 – is still used in 15 of them. The remaining 15 have embraced the integrated Math I, II and III pathway.
(See end of this article for a list of which approach the surveyed districts adopted.)
Of the six public school districts and the Aspire charter school network EdSource has been closely tracking as they implement the Common Core, four districts (San Jose Unified, Fresno Unified, Santa Ana Unified and Garden Grove Unified) and Aspire have opted to continue teaching using the traditional pathway. The remaining two (Elk Grove Unified and Visalia Unified) are committed to the integrated pathway.
Which sequence a district adopts has implications for both students and teachers.
Proponents of the integrated pathway argue that it is academically more effective, and in line with how secondary California districts moving to new ‘integrated’ high school math pathway | EdSource:
