Curriculum reviews have rarely, if ever, been a time of harmony among the populace. This year’s is no exception.
Under review this year is the math department curriculum, a massive curriculum reformation that has actually been going on for well over a year. Headed by a Math Committee formed by district math teachers, parents, and Heidi Shepard, the Director of Assessment and Mathematics for the School District of Clayton, the review has worked tirelessly to come up with a new math curriculum. This new system will be “world-class,” enabling the students to compete at international mathematics levels.

To begin, an extensive system of surveying and statistics collecting was performed. In addition to their own results, the Committee hired a team of statisticians from Washington University to further analyze their work, making sure the results were conclusive.
“It was really just to ensure that every rock was turned over and looked [at],” Shepard said. “The results were pretty much what we had found. There were no shocks in the data that they presented to us.”
After the initial phases were over, the true revisions began. Both the Committee and CHS math teachers sat down to evaluate different textbooks and curriculums, in keeping with the proposed focus of the future system.
“I think, when you look at the new K-12 math curriculum, the phrase that we’ve heard is balance,” Shepard said. “So you’re looking at conceptual understanding, doing the problem, and problem solving. When you look at some of our textbooks, they’re very heavy in understanding and applying, so the teachers have supplemented the doing part of it. So we’ve really looked for textbooks that apply all three.
Of course, the always-contentious issue of the Integrated curriculum has arisen in the review. As of now, the plan is to phase out the system for the revised version of the College Prep circuit, a decision which will, no doubt, have both its supporters and its protesters. Both groups can trace their origins back nearly a decade, when the Integrated program was first introduced.
`“There is still what has been called ‘the Math Wars,’ which have people at the polar opposites,” CHS Principal Louise Losos said. “It still has its remnants with folks who are very much opposed to the Integrated curriculum and folks who are very much in support of the Integrated curriculum.”
Along with the negative perceptions often associated with the circuit, the divisive nature of the Integrated program has created the problem of one-period classes, dubbed “singletons.” These classes are small enough to warrant only one course a day, a mandated hour that can wreak havoc with scheduling.
“So you have all of these singleton courses, and that makes it very difficult for the student’s schedule,” Shepard said. “If your math class is offered second period, but you want to do an elective that period, then suddenly there’s a conflict, one which math will win. And that’s not very fair to the student.”
The Math Committee will present their final plan to the Board of Education on May 18, at which time the Board will vote on whether or not to move forward with the new curriculum. Despite favorable reviews, the outcome of the vote itself is difficult to predict.
“The mathematics issue is very political, has been for a while,” Shepard said. “At this point, I would love to say that it’s moving forward, but I really can’t tell.”
If the curriculum does pass then the process will go ahead as planned, with the Integrated curriculum being phased out with the remaining students. Incoming freshmen will start on the new curriculum, and  different teachers will work with different curriculums.
“It will compartmentalize our department, because we will have teachers who are going to be working in the Integrated curriculum, and then we’ll have people like myself who will be working on phasing in a new curriculum,” CHS Math teacher Chris Moody said. “There’s going to be pockets of people teaching different things. There won’t be as much communication in the department as to what is going on.”
However, in spite of the difficulties still to come, the outlook is favorable for the changes to the system.
“We’re excited about the changes,” Moody said. “We’re looking forward to the challenge. We know that there will be issues involved, but we’ll get through them and I think that the students will be better for it.”
And, perhaps, it is also important to remember that, whatever the system, CHS math teachers will be sure to give it their all.
“I think that our math teachers will do a fantastic job of teaching, no matter the curriculum,” Losos said. “I think, in the end, the bigger picture is that we have phenomenal teachers, and whatever textbook they have in front of them, they will make sure that the students learn it to the utmost.”