Math proposal could backfire

Four years of math not for all

Published April 23, 2006 at midnight

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In a pole-vaulting contest, officials keep raising the bar until only one competitor remains and is crowned the winner.

That's fine for athletic events, but it isn't how high school graduation ought to work. The bar should be set high enough that the diploma signifies completion of a rigorous course of study that prepares students for successful adult lives. It should not be set so high that many students will never clear it despite their best efforts.

Ah, but how high is that? That's the problem many school districts are wrestling with now. They're considering whether current graduation requirements are adequate, and also how to adapt their policies to new standards for four-year college admission set by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education for the class that will enter college in 2010.

In Denver, an advisory group has been working since January on revising graduation requirements. On Monday, its members presented a draft proposal to Superintendent Michael Bennet and Chief Academic Officer Jaime Aquino. Aquino also released his own, slightly different draft. The school board will act, possibly in June, on requirements for the class of 2010.

There's much to commend here, but with regard to math we disagree. Four years of math in high school, starting with Algebra 1 no later than ninth grade, is a suitable expectation for admission into a four-year college, and students should have that drilled into them starting - oh, around second grade.

But it is unnecessarily restrictive as a requirement for graduation from high school, since not all students can or will attend college. Three years is sufficient. Other districts, including Cherry Creek, have set the math bar there.

Even success in a strong three-year curriculum may be unattainable in Denver as soon as 2010 - and it has nothing to do with the fact that many urban students are poor and minority. But the class of 2010 is today's eighth graders, and many of them are already too far behind to succeed in algebra next fall and stick with math through four years. Although the district will devote more time to math next year, with a focus on skills, it won't know for at least a year how many now struggling students will catch up.

Last year, half of Denver's eighth graders earned an "unsatisfactory" score on the Colorado Student Assessment Program's math test. Many students at that level will struggle to complete even one course in algebra. And an additional 27 percent were "partially proficient," which predicts difficulty for many of them as well.

What's even more disturbing is the soaring percentage of "unsatisfactory" CSAP scores, from 37 percent in seventh grade to 59 percent in ninth grade. When the district can demonstrate success with a three-year requirement, it can start thinking about raising it to four.

High expectations, but achievable for most students - that's where the bar belongs.

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