This year, mathematics teachers at Aragon have new Common Core standards to adhere to and teach by.
Because there are no fewer advanced math classes in middle school, the district combined Algebra 3-4 and Pre-Calculus to allow students to accelerate in math.
Math teacher Alice Hu explains, “They’re not going to be able to accelerate in middle school anymore because what people have found from studies for Common Core [is that] if you excel too early, you lose all the basic math skills.”
Students are recommended into this class based on their geometry teacher’s recommendation. However, Hu says that those grades do not indicate a student’s success in this joint class, as it is a very challenging course. Hu adds, “Some of [the students] will benefit from it. That means they will take the two years of math and next year they will be able to go directly to calculus BC.”
“The hope is, as a senior, they will be able to take multivariable calculus. If they didn’t have this class, then they wouldn’t be able to do that.”
Regarding the arrangement of this course, Hu says, “Now we’re going to move into exponential functions. I’m grabbing a couple of sections from the Algebra 3-4 book and a couple of sections from the Pre-Calc book and that’s going to be exponential functions.”
Some students agree with the joint.
Junior Russell Cheng, who previously took both Pre-Calculus and Algebra 3-4, says, “I think for a large part of Pre-Calc, it’s just a review of Algebra 3-4, so it’s definitely doable.”
Hu agrees that the combination class is a good idea, but realizes it is not a class for everyone.
Hu says, “Pre-calc already by itself is so difficult. These people are only coming from geometry [and they’re already being] hit with Pre-calc, so it’s been a struggle for some people. The ones that are hanging in there are doing really well.”
However, junior Charles Jayasinha, who took pre-calculus last year, disagrees with the combination of the two classes.
Jayasinha says, “It’ll rush students trying to get ahead to the next level, but [they] won’t succeed if [they] don’t have a good foundation. We should encourage students to really take their time to understand.”
As of now, Hu is figuring out who is appropriate and suitable for this course.
Hu adds, “It’s for the person who is really math-oriented and probably going to do something math related later in college, otherwise, there’s really no need.”
