High failure rates and concerns that students are not learning the math skills they need has prompted a third of Inland area high schools trying a new college-prep program to drop it.

Riverside's Poly High School discontinued College Preparatory Mathematics in June after only 27 percent of the algebra I students earned a C or better. One semester after scraping the program, the passing rate went up to 42 percent.

"We tried it and decided it wasn't working . . . The majority of teachers refused to teach it because we felt it was hurting kids," said Jo Ellen Ramsey, head of Poly's math department.

Of the 22 high schools in the Inland area that have tried the program, seven have done away with all or most of it. And at least four schools offer students a choice between it and traditional math. Even teachers who stand by the program have modified the course or supplemented it with traditional math work.

Developed by a group of UC Davis professors and math teachers, the preparatory program debuted in 1989 but moved into widespread use in California schools in 1994. The program includes algebra I, geometry, algebra II and a fourth course similar to pre-calculus.

The major difference between it and traditional math lies in the teaching. In traditional math, teachers lecture on math concepts. Students apply what they learn by working through problems with pencil and paper.

With the program, teachers lecture less while students working in four-person teams are encouraged to work out answers among themselves using props to solve "real world" problems. The idea is that students learn better by using their hands to build images of math problems instead of hearing it from a teacher.

The program's authors say it makes math easier for students who are more visually oriented.

"What do x and y mean to kids when they are just given a rule to follow?" said director Brian Hoey. "When they can actually see a physical representation of the algebraic idea, it gives them a context in which to develop it."

But for some students, it is just not working.

In the Moreno Valley Unified School District, where 43 percent of the algebra I students at Canyon Springs and Moreno Valley high schools flunked last spring, the program is under review. The failure rate at Valley View High School was 33 percent.

"Our students aren't getting what they need," said Moreno Valley trustee Tracey Vackar about the high failure rates. "I'm about ready to throw the whole thing out. It's an embarrassment to our district. It's unfair to our kids."

But if students are failing, program supporters say it is the teacher who is to blame.

"If math teachers from any school are saying the low passage rates are because of the curriculum, I can tell you they're wrong," said North High School Principal Dale Kinnear. "It has to do with teaching. It's not whether the style is traditional."

Hoey said that while the program encourages teachers to let students work out problems within the group, there always will be a few in any class who might need extra help. Their questions must be answered. Or, if an entire group has questions, the teacher must step in.

"There are teachers who will monkey wrench things," Hoey said. "If you're running a CPM classroom, you're working harder than you were. The teacher is suppose to be walking around the room and monitoring students. It's not as easy as just lecturing at the head of the class."

Peter Abt, Valley View High School math department chairman, said part of the problem may be teachers who went overboard in embracing the concept.

"Unfortunately, I think what has happened is that several individuals believe this is a hands-off approach," he said. "It isn't. You have to adapt to what the kids need, and if you don't, shame on you."

Critics say the program's shortcoming lies in its emphasis on group work and the diminished role of the teacher.

"The problem with CPM is that students are constantly in groups," said Gemma Nohilly, math department chairwoman at Rancho Verde High School in Moreno Valley. "There is not enough built-in time for lecturing, and in an effort not to kill students with drill, they have not given them enough practice."

Darryl Brown, a junior at Moreno Valley's Valley View High School, agreed. Group work cannot replace good instruction.

"How are you suppose to do the work if you don't understand it?" Brown said.

Poor or lazy students also make it tougher.

"If you're the only one in the group who understands it, then everybody depends on you," Brown said. "If you don't do the work, it doesn't get done."

Ramsey of Poly High School said group work is not the program's only flaw.

She called the program a "watered down" curriculum that pays little attention to important concepts such as roots, radicals and inequalities. With its heavy emphasis on calculators, students do not have the skills they need to multiply on their own. She acknowledges, however, that students should have mastered multiplication before they reach high school.

Ramsey said even though Poly teachers started it with an "open mind," they concluded the program did not prepare students to move to upper-level math courses like calculus.

Some college math professors say they have seen a decline in computation skills among students who have had the program in high school, though there are no studies to back up that assertion.

Cal State Northridge Professor David Klein says the problem is larger than the program. He blames the reform movement that started in 1989 when the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics came out with a list of standards designed to raise American children's math skills. In the process, important skills -- like arithmetic, long division and algebraic thinking -- were left out.

"As a result, the students are getting clobbered," Klein said.

Hoey said the program was an outgrowth, in part, of complaints among UC Davis college professors that incoming freshman could not think critically. A professor would ask a "why question," and a student would say, "tell me what formula to use and I'll do it for you."

Hoey said program writers have taken into account some of the criticism and revised the algebra I textbook. It contains fewer open-ended questions and has supplements for practice problems.

He attributes the frustration among parents and students to a resistance to change.

"Some of these students have been very good at learning a rule, following it and doing it 50 times," Hoey said. "Our goal is to ask them why they are doing it."

They also are working harder. The program requires more reading since the bulk of the assignments are word problems. Students are required to take notes. They also must keep a tool kit containing terminology and summaries of each new idea. They are advised to review it at the end of each chapter.

In the Murrieta Valley Unified School District, teachers plan to use a traditional algebra I textbook next year to supplement the course program. That is just common sense, according to Guy Romero, director of instructional services.

"For anyone to let a single program drive what you should teach or how you should teach is absurd," Romero said.

Valley View math teacher Laura Gettel has tailor-made the program to fit her classes. Instead of groups of four, Gettel's students work in pairs. She starts out most classes with a lecture review or drill of math problems. Students sometimes work them out on the board and then split into pairs. If they are learning a new algebra skill, she has her students work individually.

Most students in Gettel's algebra II honors class like the format.

"I prefer working in pairs because when you go to your peers for help, they are at the same intellectual level," said sophomore Kim Bowen.

But junior Kevin Bradley said the help he receives from his peers is effective only because it is an honors class.

"I've worked in groups in other math classes where all the students did was copy off of one another," Bradley said.

Supporters point to improved scores on the Golden State Exam as proof the program is working. The exam is a voluntary test that high school students can take in algebra, geometry, U. S. history, economics, biology, chemistry, science and written composition. Those who score well on the exams in six subject areas earn a Golden State Seal Merit Diploma.

At Paloma Valley High School in Menifee, which offers traditional math and the prep program, most of the students who took top honors on the Golden State exams were in the program, said math department chairman Richard Payne.

But critics give little weight to the Golden State Exam, which was revised four years ago to include more CPM type problems. The 1998 exam that tests geometry and algebra has 30 traditional multiple-choice questions and five written response questions.

But rather than debate which math program is the best, Moreno Valley High School math teacher Don Saxbury said schools should just offer students a choice between the two.

"I think that would solve a lot of the problem," he said.

Published 4/26/1998