Wauwatosa board approves new math curriculum after months of debate; administrators promise pilot and monitoring

The Wauwatosa School Board voted unanimously Oct. 27 to approve new courses of study and primary curricular resources that include a phased move to an integrated high-school math sequence.

Board members and the district’s curriculum team spent more than two hours discussing the proposal, which shifts the high-school math sequence from a traditional algebra→geometry→algebra 2 model to an integrated sequence (Integrated 1, 2, 3) that resequences the same state standards across three years.

Chief Academic Officer Nicole Marble told the board the standards covered by algebra, geometry and algebra 2 will still be taught, “we are simply rearranging the order in which they are taught so that there is a greater conceptual understanding of the math standards.” Curriculum staff argued an integrated model can weave…