East Brunswick To Review Math Prime Program

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — East Brunswick school officials say they will take another look at Math Prime. A board member said students who didn't take the sixth-grade course are being steered out of honors pre-algebra.

The issue came up at the Oct. 29 Board of Education meeting, as board members went through questions about honors courses that they said they had received from the community.

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Math Prime is not a prerequisite for Pre-Algebra 1 Honors. But board member Antoinette Evola said students who come in from regular sixth-grade math are being told the class will move too fast for them. She said parents heard the same message at back-to-school night.

"I'm just saying that students are leaving pre-algebra one honors because they're not doing as well as their peers, and the conversations are it's too fast for your student," Evola said. "So without any interventions, without suggesting tutoring or after school or any of the other tools that you would do to support a student."

"It's just, this doesn't look like a right fit," she said.

Evola said students coming out of Math Prime have spent a full year in a faster-paced class. That gives them an edge over students who qualified for honors through regular math.

"So when this year starts, it seems like they don't belong there, and then they don't do as well as the others," she said.

She compared it to two baseball players: one who has had a year of private training, and one who is simply good at the game.

"If the students are not having that same type of training to be in that fast pace, it does put the kids who have not been in there at a disadvantage," she said.

Administrators said no one should be shut out.

"There are other pathways for students to get there," said Assistant Superintendent Joyce Boley. "If they are ready and they are strong and they're demonstrating mastery of the content in their math class in sixth grade and they're up to the challenge and they want to rise to the occasion, then they have a right to be in that class."

"I wouldn't want a teacher expressing to a student that they don't belong in the class," Boley added.

Superintendent Evelyn Mamman agreed that students who took Math Prime start with an advantage. She said the course was created years ago with a clear goal, and the district followed groups of students to make sure that goal was being met.

She said it has been about five or six years and is worth reviewing.

"We should look at it to see what has changed, what should be different," she said.

Mamman said administrators can "certainly look at that deeper" and see how students are performing.

The Math Prime debate tied into a broader question board members raised about honors classes. Some residents are concerned the courses "just seem to be moving at a faster pace" without more chances for advanced learning, board president Marianne Tanious said.

"It's not just about the pace," Boley said. "There certainly should be deeper learning and opportunities for students to, you know, go deeper and demonstrate their learning and understanding of the content."

The superintendent said honors and AP courses assume students come in with certain skills. That can make a class seem fast to someone looking in from outside.

"It might seem fast for a child or student who isn't as strong in that prereq," she said. "So it's not the same curriculum, but we're going faster. That's not it, from what I have observed."

She said curriculum questions are an ongoing discussion with the board's academic affairs committee.

"I know we're East Brunswick. I know we have a legacy," she said. "Life has changed. The students in front of us have changed. The way they learn has changed."

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