<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gregory F. Bachelis, Ph.D.<\/p>\n
Professor of Mathematics,<\/p>\n
Wayne State University<\/p>\n
Detroit, Michigan [1]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This report, and the six months I spent working on the underlying survey, is dedicated to the students, past and present, of Andover and Lahser High Schools.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I would like to the thank several parents and others in the West Bloomfield and Bloomfield Hills School districts, and in particular Mark Schwartz, Ph.D., for their support and encouragement during the duration of this project<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This survey was conducted to compare how high school students with differing high school math programs do in college.\u00a0 I conducted the survey in my capacity as a Professor of Mathematics at Wayne State University, where for 27 years I have taught and done research in mathematics, and more recently also in mathematics education and theoretical computer science.\u00a0 I conducted this survey as a public service to parents, students and others in the Bloomfield Hills School District, the West Bloomfield School District (where I live) and other districts where new programs have been introduced which have caused concerns among community members.\u00a0 It was also done as a service to the mathematical community, whose two main organizations[2]<\/a> are closely following the evolution of these new math curricula and the effect they are having on incoming college students.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I sent the survey questionnaire (see below) along with a covering letter bearing the letterhead of the Department of Mathematics of Wayne State University.\u00a0\u00a0 I gave my office phone number for people to call if they had any questions or concerns.\u00a0 There was also a stamped return envelope, addressed to my office, with which to return the survey.\u00a0 None of the above made it a \u201cWayne State Survey,” nor did I imply in any of my communications with the people being surveyed that this was anything but my own research project.\u00a0 Nor was any implication given that Wayne State would endorse any of the research\u2019s conclusions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In addition, the research was not funded by Wayne State University.\u00a0 The stamps on the return envelopes were paid for by interested parents; I did all of the work connected with the survey — clerical, follow-up phone calls and e-mail messages, data transcription and the like — and I was not given release time from my usual duties in order to accomplish all this.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The report that follows is preliminary in nature. Further analysis needs to be done on the data, and this is currently being done by professors at another university.\u00a0 However, the report does<\/em> include all the comments made by all the respondents, with accompanying information supplied by them — GPA\u2019s, SAT and\/or ACT scores, college attended, college major, etc.– in order to give the comments a context.\u00a0 Since I promised confidentiality to the respondents, I have blurred the contextual information, in a manner explained later, so as to preserve their anonymity.\u00a0 I have also, in a few cases, paraphrased or deleted portions of the comments in order to protect the identity of the respondent.\u00a0 In each case this is clearly indicated.\u00a0 None of the above actions detract in any material way from the information that they provided.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In closing, I wish to reiterate that this research project was performed by myself as an individual faculty member of Wayne State University, conducting a survey on what I considered to be a matter of public interest within the area of my professional expertise.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Bloomfield Hills School District (BHSD) is located in Oakland County, Michigan.\u00a0 It is a 25-square-mile area, which is comprised of virtually the entire city of Bloomfield Hills, most of Bloomfield Township, a large portion of eastern West Bloomfield Township, and a small part of the city of Troy.\u00a0 The district has two high schools, Andover and Lahser, and three middle schools, West Hills, Bloomfield Hills and East Hills.\u00a0 The middle schools all house grades six through eight.\u00a0 West Hills feeds Andover, East Hills feeds Lahser, and Bloomfield Hills Middle School feeds both high schools.<\/p>\n In the fall of 1993, Andover High School began what would be a four-year phase-out of its (non-accelerated) \u201ctraditional\u201d math program, which had been as follows:<\/p>\n In its place the Core-Plus Mathematics Project (CPMP or Core-Plus) was installed; it is an integrated math program using modeling, simulation and cooperative learning, which makes extensive use of graphing calculators.\u00a0 Core-Plus was phased in on a year-by-year basis, so that by the 1996-97 school year it was the exclusive math program at Andover, with the exception of AP Calculus and AP Statistics.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 The latter courses are typically taken in the twelfth grade by \u201caccelerated students,\u201d by which I mean those who take Algebra 1 or Core 1 before the ninth grade.<\/p>\n \u201cIntegrated\u201d or \u201cReform Math\u201d refers at the high school level[5]<\/a> to constructing the curriculum out of four \u201cstrands\u201d:<\/p>\n These are woven together for a three or four-year curriculum, rather than being taught as separate courses.<\/p>\n Core-Plus was introduced at Andover in 1993 as a pilot project, which means that this was the first time it was used anywhere in an actual classroom setting.\u00a0 According to Professor Harold Schoen, evaluation Director of Core-Plus,\u00a0 \u201cThe pilot test was designed mainly to provide feedback to the authors from teachers and students concerning what worked well, what did not and what improvements were needed.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 In 1994 the field testing of Core 1 began in 36 high schools in Michigan and around the country.\u00a0 Core-Plus was originally intended as a three-year curriculum.\u00a0 However, according to Marcia Weinhold, the Outreach Coordinator of Core-Plus, \u201cDuring their senior year, [the non-accelerated Andover] students studied three prototype units for a possible fourth-year course that was envisioned by Core-Plus.\u00a0 Thus, the curriculum these students pursued was not a complete four-year curriculum.\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 The field testing for Core 4 started in the fall of 1998.<\/p>\n A substantial portion of the Andover Class of 1997 consisted of students who had been accelerated in math, and hence had not taken Core-Plus. These students as a rule had taken Algebra 1 during the 1992-93 school year, while still in middle school.\u00a0 So when this group arrived at Andover in 1993, they rode the last wave of the traditional math sequence while the non-accelerated students rode the first wave of Core-Plus.\u00a0 Lahser, the other high school, stayed \u201ctraditional.\u201d\u00a0 Core-Plus was introduced at the middle school level, so that accelerated students destined for Andover could take it in the eighth grade, in (I believe) January, 1994.<\/p>\n So, in June 1997, the first class having completed four years of Core-Plus graduated Andover High School.\u00a0 Subsequently, reports of some of these graduates having difficulties on the math placement exams at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (UMAA) and Michigan State University (MSU) began to surface. On October 28, 1997, a joint meeting of the Bloomfield Hills and West Bloomfield School Boards was held to discuss reform math.\u00a0 After the featured speaker had finished the main part of his presentation, several parents and others took to the floor to express their thoughts and concerns about Core-Plus and about how this first graduating class was doing in college.\u00a0 I live in the West Bloomfield School District (WBSD), which had started introducing Core-Plus, and phasing out their existing math program, in 1995.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n I had participated in several meetings of my school board during the preceding year, at which Core-Plus was discussed, and I attended this joint meeting.\u00a0 After attending a number of additional meetings organized by parents, in both BHSD and WBSD, concerning the impact of Core-Plus, and mindful of the intense scrutiny the mathematical community is giving the evolution of such reform math programs, I decided to do a survey of the 1997 graduates of Andover, in order to determine their opinions about Core-Plus and to get as complete as possible a picture of their mathematical experiences since graduation.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n I surveyed the entire Andover class of 1997; the reason being that I did not know a priori<\/em> who had been accelerated and who had not.\u00a0 Also, with the accelerated students I could study how well students with a traditional high school math background do in Reform Calculus courses such as \u201cHarvard Calculus,\u201d[10]<\/a> The latter is the flagship calculus course of UMAA; it is also taught at MSU, but on a more limited basis.[11]<\/a>\u00a0 One of the main claims of Core-Plus and other programs of its type is that they are a better preparation for Reform Calculus courses than the more traditional curricula.[12]<\/a><\/p>\n The survey commenced in late April of 1998 and concluded in mid-September, as far as any activity on my part soliciting responses.\u00a0 The covering letter and survey questionnaire are given below in compressed form. (Most blank lines and some lines for answers have been deleted.)\u00a0 The original questionnaire consisted of three pages plus the optional section.<\/p>\n ******************************************************************************************<\/p>\nDedication<\/h2>\n
Acknowledgment<\/h2>\n
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSTATEMENT OF PURPOSE<\/h2>\n
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe Advent of Core-Plus in Bloomfield Hills<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
The Accelerated Students<\/h2>\n
Controversy over Core-Plus<\/h2>\n
Covering Letter and Survey Questionnaire<\/h2>\n