By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh

New York City math teachers are dreading the changes they will be required to implement this Fall in the math curriculum for teens. As reported by the NY Post, Chancellor David Banks has directed nearly all Algebra teachers to implement the new Illustrative mathematics curriculum starting September. The program was piloted last year in some 265 schools, where teachers blasted the program as “a complete disaster.”

In the last week of June, city officials announced the initiative known as “NYC Solves”, which will require almost all of the city’s over 400 high schools and 93 of its 600 middle schools to adopt a standardized “Illustrative Math curriculum.” The curriculum emphasizes classroom discussions of problems, so that the students understand concepts, rather than go through the technical terms and receive step-by-step instructions. “With ‘NYC Solves,’ our classrooms will be focused on deeply understanding math concepts, connecting these concepts to each other, and applying these concepts to the real world,” Banks told reporters.

Banks noted that half of students in grades 3-8 were not proficient in math in 2023, and even this was an improvement over the previous year. “And nearly 66% of black students and approximately 64% of Latino students scored below proficiency,” he added. “I don’t know about you, but I think that is wholly unacceptable.” In high schools, some 42% of students failed to pass the Algebra 1 Regents exam, taken at the end of the ninth grade last year, Banks said.

The new uniform math curriculum is expected to cost the city $32 million over five years. The changes are being implemented in hopes of improving the city’s lagging math scores, but teachers say only gifted students will succeed. Per the Post, under the new program teachers must adhere to scripted lessons on a rigid “pacing calendar” schedule. Students work in groups to solve problems and are expected to “discover” the answers with minimal instruction. Weaker students or those without proper prerequisite skills will become frustrated, teachers say.

“It’s the worst,” one teacher wrote recently in a Facebook chat group. “No one was happy with it. The kids didn’t know wtf was happening when we used the lessons. Not to mention you get reprimanded by the superintendent’s office if you go ‘off script’ and don’t use verbatim the words in the curriculum.” “It’s been a complete disaster,” a colleague agreed on the chat.

So far, the city Department of Education has not released the results of the Algebra 1 Regent exam taken at the 265 pilot schools on June 4. “We do not yet have the results,” a DOE spokeswoman claimed. Per the Post, insiders say teachers grade those exams

within days and individual schools and students have already received their own grades. This month, NYC must submit those scores to the state, which will release citywide and borough results in the fall. Per the Post, leaked data shows some of those pilot

schools in Bronx and Queens had more failing grades on the Regents compared to last year. “Being forced to use illustrative Math for Algebra 1 brought down my students’ average score from 69 to 64,” one teacher told The Post. She explained that the strict

schedule didn’t afford her time to help struggling students. “If my students didn’t get something, we had to move on,” the teacher said.