Whenever I tell anyone who isn’t currently in school, or who isn’t from California, that I’m in “Integrated Math III” or “Integrated Math II”, they look at me all confused. I don’t blame them, though, because they probably know these courses as “Algebra 2” and “Geometry”.
This can even cause problems for students who go to school in a district that calls the math classes by these Integrated names, and then switch to one that doesn’t, because then they’re not sure which class they should be taking. They might then either be held back or put into a class that is way too difficult for them.
The Integrated curriculum mixes Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and even Statistics, into all the years of high school math, instead of just focusing on one branch at a time. This can be beneficial for some, but it can also be harmful for students who want to focus on a specific math pathway for their future college degree or job.
The Integrated math curriculum, working together with the CPM textbook curriculum, focuses on a student-based learning system. This means that students have to figure out the answers to math problems, with little guidance from teachers, and they are required to just discuss these problems as a student group. This idea sounds good, but not every student can learn this way, as most will need that extra guidance from a teacher.
The Integrated curriculum also prepares students to take the SATs, and other such exams, by making the math curriculum more challenging and fast-paced. But now we see that most colleges, especially those in the UC system, are no longer looking for students’ SAT scores. Therefore, Integrated math isn’t even useful for that purpose anymore.
Mrs. Greta Sukazian, an Integrated math teacher at Glendale High School, brought to my attention that the curriculum also has a flaw, in that some of the most important areas of geometry are not explored. The integrated curriculum puts more emphasis on Algebra 1 and 2, rather than geometry. In the older curriculum, geometry is an entire year of math, but the amount of geometry that is taught in the integrated curriculum is less than a year’s worth of geometry lessons.
From my personal experience, the Integrated I setup was fairly easy, due to most of it being a review from the previous year. But Integrated II was where I began to feel lost in math. Too many brand new concepts were being introduced all at once, and it was difficult to apply all of them together. I didn’t feel prepared enough for what was taught in Integrated II after coming from Integrated I.
Overall, I believe students’ opinions deserve to be heard, as far as education goes, since it is where they attend every day. Education is what builds students up for the future, and if they feel frustrated with math in high school, it may ruin the subject for them for the rest of their lives. It is crucial to create a school environment where students are heard, because then students feel safer, and therefore more comfortable, while learning.
