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On Monday, the state Board of Education unanimously decided that Arizona’s high school students will need to take more mathematics to graduate.
We’re proud that one of our own from Cochise County played a key role in this important change in state education policy.
That would be Karen Nicodemus, who serves as president of Cochise College and president of the state Board of Education.
“In the 21st century, the majority of the jobs that pay high wages and (are in) high demand will require the kind of skills that we’re putting in place,” Nicodemus said during Monday’s board meeting in Phoenix.
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Students now will be required to take four years of math to earn their diploma. This will include algebra I and II or its equivalent, plus a fourth course containing “significant math content.”
Currently, only two years of math are required, which is the same for science.
But that, too, will change as a third year of science will now be required.
The state board did allow some students to escape the fourth year of math, through a parentally-approved “personal curriculum,” which in Nicodemus’ words “is intended to be an exception.” State School Superintendent Tom Horne said the process of skipping the fourth year is designed to be difficult and should be only for students who just barely pass the math portion of the AIMS test that measures whether students have learned the fundamentals of algebra I and geometry.
As Horne explains it, there is flexibility in the state’s program, in that excepted students could take career technical education courses to meet their senior-year requirement. Horne says economic courses might qualify.
America is struggling to overcome the subprime mortgage financial crisis. Many Americans have become slothful about saving money and have not learned about the power of compound interest. Math is a universal language that transcends nationalities and levels playing fields.
When the Soviets put Sputnik in orbit, America responded decisively with its own space program. The space race was a silver lining behind the dark clouds of the Cold War. Today, with many telecommunications satellites in outer space, anybody who enjoys the convenience of using of a cellphone or the World Wide Web is reaping the benefits of raised math standards of yesteryear.
Arizona is heading in the right direction by subscribing to higher math standards for its secondary education students.
kid wrote on Dec 19, 2007 4:45 PM: