Middle School Math Changes

As the title of my blog indicates, I intend to keep everyone up to date on all of the many changes that we have had and are working on in the area of curriculum in addition to technology. In future blogs I will review some exciting changes that we made in the past few years including emphasizing teaching organizational skills, changes to how we teach and assess writing, and the acceleration of our math program from PK3 through 8th grade.

This post, however, will focus on a more recent change. When we decided to make changes to our math program 3 years ago, we noticed that our 7A/8th grade math course changed significantly. In past years, that course, called "Pre-Algebra," evolved into what would better be described as beginning algebra and beginning geometry. For the first half of the course, students in "Pre-Algebra" covered the same concepts as those enrolled in our 8A "Honors Algebra I" course. The second semester of "Pre-Algebra" actually wasn't algebra at all. In fact, it was comparable to the first semester of high school Geometry.

This year we thought that it might be best to rename the course "Intro to Algebra and Geometry." As Mrs. Weiss and I further considered this, we came up with a new idea. Instead of having students essentially do the first half of Algebra I in 7A/8 and then again in 8A, why not complete the entire Algebra I course in 7A/8? This would allow all middle school students to have the opportunity to take Algebra I at BA. This also would give our advanced students the opportunity to take a full year of Geometry at BA as well.

Beginning with this year's 7A/8th grade students, the course that they are enrolled in is now called "Honors Algebra I." For those in 7A this year, when they are in 8A, a full year Geometry course will be offered for the first time at BA. This Geometry course will include the second half of the former "Pre-Algebra" but will continue on to complete the entire course of Geometry.

Why make this change? First and foremost, we feel confident that our middle school mathematics program is second to none. Mrs. Weiss, who has taught math in our middle school for 15 years, is widely known by all students past and present to be an exceptional teacher. Further, our research done last year with our graduates indicated that math is by far the area that students at all area high schools (including both public and private) felt that they did not have as positive of an experience as they did at BA. Many of our graduates stay in touch with Mrs. Weiss to get assistance when they feel they need it in high school. All say that they keep their middle school notes from Mrs. Weiss with them at all times to help them with their high school coursework. With this in mind, we believe that exposing our BA students to as much math under the instruction of Mrs. Weiss is in their best interest moving forward.

Another reason, of course, is that we believe that our students are highly capable of reaching even further. We know that our students will be able to meet the additional challenge of further acceleration of our curriculum. Whenever we have raised the bar at BA, our students always rise to the occasion and amaze us with what they are capable of accomplishing. We are excited to give our awesome students another opportunity to excel academically.