Houston Democrats

Winding Road points out that this change would solve another pesky problem:

At least we don't have to worry about them learning evolution because we won't be teaching science.

From the Chronicle:

HISD may alter math-science requirement
Students may cut high school load with early credits; experts fear plan is 'a step backward'

By JASON SPENCER
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

RESOURCES
NEW FORMULA

HISD is proposing changes in its math-science requirements:
• Currently: Students must take three years of science and math in high school to earn a diploma.
• If approved: Middle schoolers could earn high school-level credits, allowing them to skip math and science courses after their sophomore years.
Houston ISD students could earn high school diplomas without taking a single math or science class after their sophomore year under a proposal that is drawing criticism from some national education experts.

Critics say the change will leave students unprepared for college and the workplace.

"I'm surprised they would be considering this move," said Anne Tweed, president of the 55,000-member National Science Teachers Association. "That's a step backward."

Superintendent Abe Saavedra wants to do away with a policy that mandates three years of math and science courses for all high school students. Instead, students who pass high school-level courses in the eighth grade would get credit toward a diploma. State law requires three math and science credits to graduate.

Saavedra's proposal, which is expected to win school board approval today, runs counter to a national trend of school systems requiring students to spend more time in math and science classes before they graduate. The decision is even more curious, some education experts said, given the fact that more than two-thirds of HISD's 2004 graduates who enrolled in local community colleges last fall were required to take remedial courses.

"That policy will result in more youngsters having to take remedial math when they go on for further study," said Gene Bottoms, senior vice president of the Southern Regional Education Board and director of the High Schools that Work program. "It will also mean more students will not be able to pass employer exams that have a math component."

Focusing less on TAKS
Saavedra told school board trustees earlier this week that the three-year requirement is unnecessary. It was adopted in 2001, he said, because trustees wanted high school juniors taking math and science classes at the same time they take the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam, which students must pass to graduate.

The current policy is based more on improving test performance than on academic quality, Saavedra said. What matters, he said, is that students take the necessary courses. "We absolutely are not lowering the standard," Saavedra said.

Still, Saavedra acknowledged that having high school students take more math and science classes would better prepare them for college. "If we required four years of math, it would work toward reducing the remedial requirement," he said. "I'm not telling you I won't come back with that kind of recommendation (in the future)."

Without the change, 38 HISD seniors will miss out on graduation ceremonies this year, Saavedra said. HISD typically graduates about 8,000 students a year.

Most trustees, including board President Dianne Johnson, have said they support Saavedra's proposal.

"It's still the same three classes," she said.

That's not necessarily so, said Brett Moulding, curriculum director for the Utah State Office of Education and a former president of the Council of State Science Supervisors.

"In eighth grade, the level of sophistication of science instruction is very different from the level that can occur in high school," Moulding said. "The students' ability to understand that information in the context of more advanced concepts is limited."

HISD trustee Greg Meyers said he hasn't decided how he'll vote.

"My concern is to make sure we keep our high achievement levels in place and I definitely would not stand for any lowering of the standards," he said. "We need to focus on college readiness and if that means they need three years of math and science in high school, then we need to make sure we have that."

Georgia's DeKalb County Public Schools decided this year to require all eighth-graders to take Algebra I. High school students in that predominantly minority and low-income school system of 100,000 students near Atlanta must take math and science from their freshman through senior years.

"The colleges and universities are saying you shouldn't have students sitting out one year, much less two years," said Wanda Gilliard, a former HISD middle school math teacher who is now DeKalb County's executive director for curriculum and instruction. "We want them exposed to that rigor before they get into a college setting."

Rules vary across the state
Graduation requirements vary in Texas. Dallas requires three years of science and math in high school. Cy-Fair requires three years of high school math, but allows students to earn science credit in middle school. Austin school officials are thinking of changing their policy that now allows students to graduate with just two years of math and science in high school.

The Houston school board meets at HISD headquarters, 3830 Richmond, at 3 p.m. today.

jason.spencer@chron.com