By Kyden Nguyen

SAN JOSE, CALIF.—Math’s back, and it’s changing. After many years of the same curriculum, Silver Creek High School has introduced a new system in Math One and Two to prepare students for future math courses.

Math, a subject that sparks strong opinions among students, has undergone a major change.After discussion from math teachers like Gil Agolyo,and Marissa Brown, the department decided to move away from the Integrated Math system, changing to Traditional Math — separating subjects like Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra II into year-long courses, allowing students to build a stronger foundation and master skills before advancing to more complex topics.

Agyolo expressed optimism about the switch, saying,“We switched to this traditional pathway because we couldn’t find a lot of work for our students, so now that we have a lot of resources — whether we go from McGaw Hill or Savas — these two publishers have a lot of resources, and we’re looking to be able to address the needs of our students.”

The change came after many years of discussion and argumentations favoring the Traditional Pathway, which focuses on strictly Math One courses, such as solving equations and inequalities, linear functions, quadratic equations, exponential radical functions, and polynomials. On the other hand, the Integrated Pathway would include a mix of topics, including the three-course sequence (Integrated Math One, Two, and Three). On top of changing to a more simple way of math, this change was also made to ensure that students would have the necessary materials and resources, such as textbooks, workbooks, and online resources.

“I think the instructional practices and strategies are pretty much the same, but we are trying to do more collaborative work with students, so we do what’s called the gradual release of responsibility. So the ‘I do’ part is the teacher doing the direct instruction, and the ‘we do’ is the whole class processing the information together,” said Brown, who explained her thoughts on the new math change into a Traditional Pathway.

The transition to Traditional Math also emphasizes collaborative work and more discussions between students and teachers. Collaboration wasn’t a focus point in the Integrated Math system, so these implementations were aimed to help students connect with math beyond letter grades. For extra support, most math teachers are available during after-school hours or lunch for any students who might need additional help.

New Traditional Math Textbook (KYDENNGUYEN/RAIDERREVIEW)