Understanding the Results: SEC Scenarios
Mountville High School
Aligning Algebra Curriculum Across Multiple Courses
Mr. Togin gathered the group of algebra-related teachers to review the data. He also brought school level math assessment results, which was the starting point for the discussion. It was evident that algebra was a weak point in the math scores, including work around equations, expressions, inequalities, and slope of a line. The teachers then briefly shared ideas on causes and discovered that each felt that the students they received into the different levels of algebra weren't ready for the curriculum.
Next, Mr. Togin presented the content survey for each course level and lined them up in sequential order. The teachers stared for a moment and then suddenly started talking. It was somewhat evident why some issues were popping up. Even though the progression from one class to the next was good, there were some gaps in content coverage that were appearing. The Pre-Algebra teacher was concentrating on variables and equations but not to the detail that was needed in Algebra I or II. So when students entered those classes, they just couldn't keep up. Algebra I wasn't covering slopes to a mastery level, yet Algebra II assumed mastery. In general, Algebra II was expecting quite a bit out of the previous two classes, and they talked about maybe easing into some content areas.
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