Celebrating a significant milestone in the ongoing transformation of high school algebra education, the launch of the AV Algebra I Project is a remarkable achievement. Today, I had the privilege of collaborating with dedicated high school math educators who are determined to reshape student expectations and outcomes, addressing the perpetual query about the practicality and relevance of algebra in daily life.
Our collaboration has identified key elements vital to the formation of the curriculum and pedagogy necessary for facilitating learning in a reimagined math class where real-world connections and applications are the priority rather than memorizing formulas and following predetermined set of steps within an algorithmic approach to solving problems. The core idea is to build on tangible outcomes and successes while inspiring student learning by presenting math as a useful tool rather than a set of abstract algorithms.
In the next six months, our team will collectively design more than 30 educational experiences to establish a foundation for understanding, applying, and mastering algebraic principles and skills in real-world contexts. Students will be encouraged to apply their existing knowledge then expand, deepen and strengthen their understanding by applying skills to more and more complex context and scenarios that will reflect a spiral curriculum and that mastery of skills is built over time and with repitition with gaps in between the experiences and demands. Students will progress through successful experiences, and reinforce their understanding of new skills by using them in various scenarios that offer different perspectives on the math skills they are working towards mastery. We aim to test the curriculum and teaching methods in a limited number of Algebra I classes during the 24-25 school year. After the pilot year, we will gather data, assess trends, successes, challenges, and use this information to make informed adjustments to the program.
I am excited to embark on this journey and look forward to sharing our achievements and challenges with you. We are committed to facing obstacles head-on and allowing the curriculum to develop naturally, guided by real-world experiences and feedback from teachers and students.
