Overshadowed by high-profile bills to delay WASL graduation requirements and overhaul sex education is legislation that would mean more math for high school students.
The proposal, part of a bill awaiting Gov. Chris Gregoire’s signature, requires the state Board of Education to revise the high school graduation requirements to include a minimum of three credits of math. The state now requires two credits.
“I think it’s safe to say students will be taking more math,” said Kathe Taylor, policy director for the state board. “I really haven’t heard anyone arguing against three years of math. I have heard people arguing about the type of math.”
Allen Sharples, curriculum director for the Lakewood School District, said he likes the idea of more math, but hopes the state will reduce requirements elsewhere to compensate.
As for the students who could lose a favorite elective to a math class?
“They’ll hate it,” Sharples predicted. “For students, that’s not much of a swap.”
A key question before the state board is what would be included in another required math class. It could boil down to a year of algebra beyond geometry.
“I think it’s good to have a three-credit requirement, but I think they have to be careful how they define the credits,” said JoAnne Robinson, a former Everett math teacher and president of the Washington State Math Council.
House Bill 1906 also would allow the third year of math to be a career and technical course that requires equivalent skills. Taylor said she doesn’t know what vocational classes would meet those requirements.
Twenty-seven states now require three or more years of math, and that number will jump to 37 by 2011.
“It’s not like we are on the cutting edge,” said Edie Harding, executive director of the state board.
“There are obviously big issues before we get there,” she added.
One challenge will be finding enough teachers with math credentials.
“I think it’s pretty safe to say if the math requirements are increasing, we will definitely have to increase the number of math teachers,” said Lin Douglas of the state’s Professional Educator Standards Board.
The same bill requiring more math outlines plans to recruit and train more math teachers and to recommend effective math curricula.
Schools already are bracing for more math classes regardless of the third-year math requirement. A Senate bill awaiting Gregoire’s signature requires students who fail the 10th-grade WASL to take more math.
Many local districts have been studying their math requirements.
“We have been seeing the way the wind has been blowing and preparing for it,” said Andy Muntz, a Mukilteo schools spokesman.
Most students with college aspirations already choose to go beyond the requirement, he said.
In the Mukilteo School District, 72 percent of high school graduates in 2005 and 2006 had three or more credits of math. Kamiak High School had 80 percent during that time, and Mariner High School had 72 percent.
Edmonds School District Superintendent Nick Brossoit worries that some students already at risk of dropping out will quit if a favorite elective is replaced by a math class they struggle in.
“We can only squeeze that Jell-O so tight,” he said. “A lot of at-risk kids need some hooks to school that the electives provide.”
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.
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