Algebra 1 test scores have dropped 14 percentage points at southern Queens schools that use a controversial new curriculum that teachers have called a “total disaster,” a principal said this week.
Josephine Van Ess, superintendent of Queens South high schools, told parent advocates Wednesday that the average passing rate at the 29 high schools under her watch — all but one of which used the Illustrative Mathematics curriculum — had dropped from 59% to 45%.
Part of the blame lies with the commercial curriculum, which forces teachers to deliver pre-packaged lessons on a rigid schedule, expects students to “discover” solutions with little guidance, and frustrates children who lack the necessary skills.
“Explicit instructions required more training before they were implemented,” said a report Van Ess submitted to the Citywide Council on High Schools, a parent advisory group. She commented, “I think teachers are having trouble with the pacing.”
Another challenge is “the ability of students to talk about mathematics, the conceptual learning that this curriculum entails,” she said.
And the support provided by external consultants commissioned by the Ministry of Education is also “limited,” the report says.
The poor performance of their schools – in Rockaways, Forest Hills, Jamaica, Richmond Hill, Briarwood, Kew Gardens and South Ozone Park – was not an isolated case.
“We’ve seen a decline across the city,” Van Ess said.
Their report was the first official disclosure of NYC students’ performance on the June 4 Regents exams. The city’s Department of Energy, which evaluated the exams, has not yet released citywide results.
South Queens students performed better than last year on nine other state Regents exams, including Algebra 2, which does not use Illustrative Math. Sixty-two percent of students who took that exam passed, compared to 50 percent last year, Van Ess reported.
Their schools were among 265 schools across the city that tested Illustrative Math. Chancellor David Banks has ordered nearly all of the city’s 420 high schools to adopt the system in the fall, excluding only six or seven top specialty schools.
At Illustrative Math, teachers deliver pre-determined lessons on a tight schedule. Students solve equations in groups with little guidance. Critics say children who lack the necessary fundamentals fail.
In addition to Queens, students from more than 25 schools in three Bronx boroughs, including some that used Illustrative Math, scored an average of 56.5 points on the Algebra 1 exam, The Post learned. That was below last year’s Bronx borough average of 61 points. The minimum passing score is 65 points.
“It’s bad that the results are worse,” CCHS President Deborah Kross told The Post after Van Ess presented her report. “It’s not just a little bit — it’s significant. There’s something wrong.”
In a “root cause analysis” for the poor results in Algebra 1, Van Ess cited several other factors besides the new curriculum.
She noted that the number of English learners – including immigrants – had increased by 30% and the number of students with disabilities had increased by 5%.
The Algebra 1 exam was different – “more conceptual and less dependent on the calculator,” the analysis says.
In addition, the state set higher minimum scores: Students had to get 29 out of 82 questions correct, or 35%, to get a score of 65. Last year, students needed 27 out of 86 points, or 31%, to pass.
Van Ess told parents she was not ready to give up on the new curriculum, a key component of New York Solves, a DOE math initiative expected to cost $34 million over five years.
“I think with time, more training and understanding and if we can really fill in the gaps with what students need to be successful, we can have success,” she said.
Kross, the president of the CCHS, has doubts.
“What bothers me is that there is only one year of pilot results and they don’t look good,” she said. “Instead of stopping and analyzing what isn’t working, we’re going to go one step further.”
DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer declined to comment on the algebra results, but said the Illustrative Math requirement remains in place: “There has been no change in policy.”
