Curriculum Tweaks Coming to WHS Next Year

Beginning next year, students at Wayland High School will take geometry before they take algebra II, a curriculum change designed to create continuity between algebra and pre-calculus.

“We think the math experience would be much smoother,” WHS Principal Pat Tutwiler explained to School Committee members Monday evening. Tutwiler said the expectation is that students would be better prepared for pre-calculus with advanced algebra still in their minds.
 
Curriculum decisions are made at the educator level, said Superintendent Gary Burton reminding School Committee members that Tutwiler’s presentation was to keep them informed but did not require their approval.

Tutwiler said that the change was instigated by teachers in the math department who noticed they spent a lot of time reviewing algebra skills with pre-calculus students who spent the previous year in geometry.

“The hope is to review less, and that students would be fresh in their calculus,” Tutwiler said. “To be clear, this wasn’t my idea. The math department … they’re the ones who said we want to shift this.”

In order to complete the transition next year, there will be an abundance geometry classes offered and few algebra II classes.

A number of years ago, before the establishment of MCAS testing, the current order of algebra I, then geometry, then algebra II was established “specifically for testing reasons,” Tutwiler said, adding that math teachers did not anticipate the switch to have any negative impacts on the MCAS testing system of today.

In fact, “a healthy piece of the math MCAS is geometry,” he said, which means students could benefit from the switch.

Under the new curriculum order students who begin in eighth grade with algebra I will take geometry in ninth grade, algebra II in 10th, and pre-calculus in 11th. Those who wait until ninth grade to take algebra I, will then have geometry in 10th grade, algebra II in 11th, and pre-calculus in 12th.

Tutwiler estimated that 95 percent of WHS students take four years of math, though four years is not required for graduation.

There are several additional tweaks to the curriculum beginning next school year, including the incorporation of 20th century European history into the ninth grade history curriculum and the addition of an Advanced Placement (AP) European history class.