New School Superintendent Cindy Loe's first foray into the ongoing "math wars" in North Fulton seemed to win over parents skeptical about Fulton Schools' math curriculum.
For nearly two hours, Loe spelled out the coming changes to math instruction for Fulton Schools in front of a packed house of parents who gathered April 21 at Milton High School to hear the new superintendent.
Judging by the few questions asked, and the round of applause at the end, parents went away pleased by the changes that will bring traditional math back into the classroom.
"From the comments I've received from parents, the consensus is the school board did a very good job [in selecting Loe]," said Alpharetta school board member Katie Reeves. "[During the math meeting] people were stunned that she could get up there, without notes, and talk about curriculum and answer questions so thoroughly,"
Loe was sworn in as superintendent for Fulton County just days prior to the math meeting at Milton High.
In contrast to a math meeting held at Milton several months ago, which quickly broke down into frustrated, angry parents and defensive administrators, the April event was a tea party.
"There is general agreement from principals to parents that Dr. Loe is the right person at the right time for Fulton County," Reeves said.
Loe explained the system's new "blended approach" for math beginning next year will return to a more traditional math instruction, yet still adhere to the principals of integrated math (see sidebar), which is currently the primary instruction.
Loe unveiled a progression chart that shows how a child will advance through math, from those on grade level to those working a year or more ahead. The complete chart is available at the Fulton Schools website, www.fultonschools.org.
Gone are the ambiguous Math 1 through Math 4 classes that were to replace math courses in high school next year under the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) – the new curriculum. In its place are amped up versions of the existing high school curriculum – from Integrated Algebra to Integrated Trigonometry – along with higher level math courses. The Integrated courses will still meet the state requirements, while aligning more with traditional math.
Students now in high school, and those taking ninth grade math in eighth grade this year, will continue under Georgia's former curriculum and not be affected by changes. Students in grade kindergarten through nine, will fall under GPS math.
Loe's grasp of curriculum issues is deep, as evidenced by her presentation at Milton, but it is to be expected. Until her selection to head Fulton Schools, Loe served as associate superintendent for Gwinnett Schools, where she was responsible for curriculum.
Loe has a doctorate in educational leadership from Georgia State University.
In addition, Loe is very familiar with the blended approach to math. Fulton's repackaging of its math curriculum is based on the model in place in Gwinnett schools.
The issue with Fulton's math curriculum came to a head early in the year after having been in place for two years. The revised curriculum, based on the new state standards, replaced traditional teaching with the integrated approach that relied heavily on inquiry, team approach and investigation.
Parents railed against an approach that did not focus on proven formulas, and its "touchy-feely" way of getting kids to think about math in a more Language Arts approach. But after three years of the new math, a dip in math test scores and angry parents, Fulton was forced to do an about face for the coming year.
Fulton Schools recently completed a math audit and incorporated many of those findings into the changes set to go into place in August.
Labels: Alpharetta, fulton county schools, math curriculum, Milton High School
# posted by
Brian Vanderhoff @ 8:03 AM
