U-46 adopts new senior-year math courses to help students in college

Elgin Area School District U-46 has adopted three new high school transitional mathematics courses aimed at bridging the gap for students who often opt out of math in their senior year but require college remediation.

The courses are transition to college algebra, quantitative literacy and statistics, and technical math. Students who complete a transitional math course with a C grade or better will receive guaranteed placement into a credit-bearing math course at any Illinois community college and some four-year universities.

U-46 is working with Elgin Community College and the other ECC feeder school districts to develop the math courses called for by the Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness Act, said Amy Ingente, U-46 math coordinator.

"They are designed to provide high school seniors with the mathematical knowledge and skills that they may still need to be successful in their career or college-level math courses," Ingente said.

Primarily, the courses will help reduce the number of high school graduates needing college remediation - about 65 percent of U-46 students enrolling at ECC are placed into remedial courses, she said.

While course content isn't new, the experience of taking math during senior year will be new for some students. Courses are designed to help fill the gaps in students' understanding by emphasizing more project-based, problem-based learning instead of merely skill acquisition and going through equations. It will be tied to students' college and career interests, Ingente said.

The Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness Act's bench marks for projected college readiness in math are:

• Successful completion of math graduation requirements - three years of math with geometry and algebra 2

• Meeting at least two of these criteria: B grade or better in algebra 2; C grade or better in a course higher than algebra 2; score above a 3.0 grade-point average; a 530 score or greater in SAT or PSAT math or ACT math score of 22 or above.

Students projected to be college ready will be advised to enroll in the next-level math course in their chosen pathway during senior year: precalculus, finite math, Advanced Placement calculus and statistics, Ingente said.

"For students who are not college ready, we're going to encourage those students to enroll in one of the transition courses so that they could receive that guaranteed placement into a credit-bearing course at a community college," she said.

Registration for transitional math courses will be open in January. Teachers will be trained on the new curriculum next summer. All three courses will be offered next school year.