Elizabeth High School teachers describe four-year shift to integrated math; board asks for outcome data

Presenters at the Elizabeth School District's Sept. 23 working session described the high school's move away from the traditional algebra-then-geometry sequence toward an integrated mathematics curriculum that blends algebra, geometry, statistics and other strands across courses.

The board convened the working session and asked Carl Zander and Travis Anton to explain why the district selected an integrated pathway and how instruction is organized. Zander said integrated courses remove rigid separations between algebra and geometry and instead present related concepts together so students see the connections visually and conceptually.

Board members heard classroom examples. Zander described an Integrated 1 lesson that uses geometric transformations to build intuition for perpendicular slopes rather than relying on the memorized opposite-reciprocal rule. Presenters said the approach emphasizes repeated practice, mixed problems across lessons and "mastery over time" rather than single-unit mastery followed by a large dropoff.

Zander and Anton said the district adopted CPM (College Preparatory Mathematics) after a year-and-a-half review because of its teacher supports, ongoing training and instructional model. They described a gradual implementation: the high school phased in Integrated 1 for ninth graders first and advanced cohorts to Integrated 2 and higher across successive years rather than switching every section at once.

Presenters reported classroom-level improvements in problem solving and conceptual understanding, and said students are doing more thinking rather than rote memorization. They also acknowledged limitations in district longitudinal measurement: staff said the district did not maintain a consistent, comparable data set from before the change and that historical comparisons are limited. They said some standardized measures (for example SAT/PSAT or state assessments) capture only small, partial samples of students and that the district could compile comparative cohorts but would need staff time to pull and interpret those records.

Board members requested more measurable evidence. One director asked the administration to pull available PSAT/SAT and state assessment data for cohorts before and after the change and to provide a plan for year-by-year metrics. The presenters offered to meet with board members and to invite them into classrooms for observations.

The board did not take formal action on curriculum at the Sept. 23 meeting. Members agreed to request comparative assessment reports and to schedule classroom visits and follow-up briefings so trustees can evaluate whether the program is meeting district goals.

Ending

Trustees said they value the classroom demonstrations and requested a short, measurable package of outcomes (cohort comparisons on available standardized measures and locally created assessments) at the next study opportunity. Presenters invited board members to visit integrated classes to observe instruction.