Gilroy High School’s first-year principal Marco Sanchez wants to
toughen up the math curriculum next year, but teachers are wary of
expecting too much, too quickly from struggling students.
Gilroy High School’s first-year principal Marco Sanchez wants to toughen up the math curriculum next year, but teachers are wary of expecting too much, too quickly from struggling students.
“They’re going to have to step it up,” Sanchez said. “I don’t think elementary and middle school level math belongs in a high school. If we’re going to give out high school diplomas to students, they should have been exposed to higher levels of math. Us offering them remedial math all the way through their senior year doesn’t serve them well and doesn’t prepare them for the next level.”
Starting next year, Sanchez hopes to begin phasing out the school’s remedial math offerings and start funneling as many ninth graders as possible directly into Algebra I. He is working with Christopher High School Principal John Perales to establish a support system for those freshmen with the lowest test scores so that they can be placed directly into Algebra I with the extra help they need to succeed. The process might take several years to perfect, but Perales and Sanchez are hoping to phase out courses like Algebra Readiness over the next year and eliminate a two-year version of Algebra I in favor of a uniform, year-long Algebra I offering.
Currently, state and district high school graduation requirements mandate that all students must take at least two years of mathematics and complete at least Algebra I. Almost 26 percent of Gilroy High School’s 1,169 upperclassmen have exceeded those requirements this year by enrolling in higher level courses, including Advanced Placement Statistics or Calculus. However, about half GHS’s ninth graders enrolled in remedial math – putting them on a track where they will likely never be able to take those advanced classes.
Many students are fulfilling state and district requirements but are scraping by on “basement level expectations,” Sanchez said. First, those students sign up for Algebra Readiness as freshmen. Then, they take Algebra A as sophomores and Algebra B as juniors, in effect spreading Algebra I – a course that most students complete in a year – over two years. Or they take Algebra A as freshman and Algebra B as sophomores, and don’t take any math in their last two years. About 200 students are currently on these tracks.
In addition, students need only earn D-minuses to fulfill state graduation requirements, Sanchez said. Senior year math is not required.
While 184 ninth graders are taking Algebra Readiness or Algebra A this year, 217 are enrolled in more traditional year-long Algebra I or Geometry classes. From there, students can take Algebra II then move into higher level courses like Trigonometry/Pre-Calculus, Finite Mathematics, Calculus and Statistics.
Sanchez said his former school district, Elk Grove Unified, had a conversation regarding upping math rigor about five years ago. That district now requires four years of math to graduate, unlike Gilroy Unified.
“That’s where the problem is,” Sanchez said. “They’re not getting high-level math. Not even close.”
Last year, 36 percent of GHS’s 662 tested ninth graders took the state standardized General Mathematics exam, an exam that tests students not yet ready to take the Algebra I exam, according to the California Department of Education. Only 13 percent received a score of proficient or advanced – considered passing by state standards. Of the 460 ninth, 10th and 11th graders who took the Algebra I exam, 15 percent passed; 23 percent passed Geometry; and 32 percent passed Algebra II. The more advanced the class, the higher the success rate.
By contrast, the same student groups at Elk Grove High School, where Sanchez served as assistant principal before coming to Gilroy, scored much higher. Only 9 percent of Elk Grove High’s 425 tested ninth graders needed to take the General Mathematics exam, though those taking the test also fared poorly with only an 8 percent passing rate. In addition to having more students taking higher level exams, Elk Grove High also boasted better results, with passing rates of 30 percent for students who took the Algebra I exam; 28 percent for students who took the Geometry exam; and 47 percent for students who took the Algebra II exam.
Perales agreed that he’s on the same page as Sanchez and would like to start thinking about making math mandatory through the senior year.
“We don’t believe in the easy senior year and we’re not going to do that at CHS,” Perales said. “We want to push for four years of math.”
But four years of math or Algebra I in ninth grade might not be right for some students, said Cathy Silva, an 11-year veteran math teacher at GHS who teaches the full math spectrum, from a ninth grade intervention course to Trigonometry/Pre-Calculus and AP Statistics.
“As a math teacher, I would love to see every student through Calculus,” Silva said. “But do they all need Calculus? No.
“In a perfect world, no one coming into high school would take less than Algebra I,” she continued. “But I don’t think everyone’s going to be ready for Algebra I in their first year. I would like them to be. But forcing it on them sooner is not always the best idea.”
Sanchez said he also struggles to get his math teachers the necessary training to teach the school’s diverse population. So far, his math department has only received one day out of a five-day training series.
“We just don’t have the money to support that,” he said.
He hopes to have each teacher through the full training by next year.
Not only does taking “the path of least resistance” shortchange students, it severely impacts a school’s score on the Academic Performance Index, a state measure of a school’s academics and growth, Sanchez said.
Students not ready to take the Algebra I state exam at the end of their freshman year are signed up for the General Mathematics exam. Every student that takes the General Math exam is immediately docked two performance bands. For instance, even if a student earns an “advanced” score of 1,000 points – which is unlikely since students taking that test have weak math skills to begin with, Sanchez pointed out – that student’s score is immediately reduced 400 points to “basic,” which affects the school’s overall standing.
With the promise of better-prepared students and higher test scores, Perales is behind the idea of boosting math expectations – as long as students are given the necessary support.
Silva agreed.
“If we set the bar (higher), students will go higher,” she said. “But we’ve got to have a lot of scaffolding.”
Perales and Sanchez plan to introduce an extra support class for the lowest performing students to make succeeding in Algebra I more likely. An additional “math lab” will allow struggling students to preview the next day’s Algebra I lesson. Getting Algebra I out of the way freshman year will allow more students to take Geometry as sophomores and Algebra II as juniors, if they so chose. California state universities require three years of higher level mathematics for admission.
“When we’re doing remedial math that’s not college prep, they’re just not going to succeed,” Sanchez said. “It’s going to close the door for them on a lot of options in the future.”
