[ttotorica]

Bill,

I just attended an Illustrative Math Conference and I am so energized by all I learned. Thank you for helping to provide this professional development for teachers! I especially appreciated hearing some of your thoughts about acceleration and compacting. We in our district have adopted a model of AP Calculus access for all, and as a result are developing course pathways that involve compacting Appendix A’s Math 7 and Math 8 courses into a single, one-year course along with a 4:3 model of compacting that absorbs the Fourth Course (Precalculus) into the integrated Math I, II, and III courses. These compacted courses are being built to provide entry points for calculus at both the junior high and high school levels and to also provide a double-accelerated pathway for those wishing to spend both their junior and senior years studying calculus.

My concern is that these courses are being built as the default courses for our general, non-gifted students. In an effort to send as many students to calculus as possible, my district is proposing the compacted 4:3 HS path for everyone, and I fear that by doing this, we will compromise both the depth of student understanding and the rigor of our courses. Do you share my concern that by compacting too much for the typical student, we will defeat the entire purpose underlying the CCSS development and generate thin and fragile mathematics competency as a result?

Given the district goal of providing access to calculus for all, do you know of any successful designs for high school acceleration that we might offer instead of the 4:3 model? I know of the “doubling up” model, where students simultaneously enroll in both Algebra and Geometry to gain a year for calculus study. But since we have adopted an integrated pathway, I’m not sure how that would look. I would like to propose a compacted, intensive summer course for precalculus, where the topics necessary for calculus success are offered to students after they have completed a normally-paced Math III course in their junior year. Do you think this could be a viable alternative to pitch to my district?

Thank you for your time and expert opinion; I appreciate it!

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