National initiatives aimed at producing high school graduates ready for college math programs have the Nebraska City Board of Education sharpening up on its algebra.
The school already requires three years of math, which is expected to be the federal threshold, but school board members agreed that a stronger emphasis on algebra is needed.
Teresa Frields, assessment and instruction director, said Allyson Molzahn-Paap, math department chairman, and the district’s math team have remapped options for math classes.
“If all kids have to take algebra, we have it covered,” Frields said.
Curriculum changes approved Monday will make “consumer math” a seniors only course. STARS, which is described on the curriculum guide as a rigorous preparation for college entrance exams, will become introduction to geometry.
It will consists of 80 percent geometry, but include algebra review, probability and statistics.
The college bound student who struggles with math could take algebra 1A, algebra 1B, geometry and algebra 2.
Students taking honors geometry as a freshman, would complete algebra classes as a sophomore. They would take pre-calculus and trigonometry as juniors and calculus, discrete math and statistics as seniors.
The least math intensive route would be algebra 1A, algebra 1B, intro to geometry and senior consumer math.
