Nadra Nittle
December sixteen, 2015

Alyssa Wallace, a senior at Long Embankment Polytechnic Loftier School, was among the 29 high school students who took an unusual math class last summertime; the course, taught at Cal State Long Beach, volition allow her to become her higher caste without taking another math class once she enrolls at the campus.

Math 103 is the merely class offered at a CSU campus designed for loftier schoolhouse students to earn higher credit, say its organizers and CSU officials. It also aims to attract would-be teachers.

The course is role of an effort to address a major obstruction that has sabotaged the academic plans of numerous California students – satisfying higher math requirements.

The 3-week class, which kicked off last summertime, allows loftier schoolhouse juniors and seniors in the Long Beach Unified School District to earn three academy credits.

Unlike Advanced Placement classes, Math 103 isn't targeted at exceptional math students. Instead, the course is open up to whatever student in 11th or 12th class who'south passed Algebra 2.

Carol Ortega is a Long Beach Unified program administrator for K-12 counseling.

Credit: Courtesy of Embracing Latina Leadership Alliances

Carol Ortega is a Long Beach Unified program ambassador for K-12 counseling who coordinated enrollment for the Math 103 course.

"Those students who aren't super potent in math may not have to take a college math course ever again," said Ballad Ortega, Long Embankment Unified plan administrator for 1000-12 counseling. Ortega coordinated student enrollment for Math 103.

The course teaches mathematical modeling, or the application of mathematics to existent-globe problems. Students may use technological tools, such as calculator programs, to identify a set of rules to solve a trouble or examine data related to the issue to find a solution. Passing the class with a C or better allows students to bypass the math placement test at Cal State Long Beach and all boosted math classes for majors with minimal math requirements.

Wallace enrolled in the class because she'd rather study fine fine art or business marketing than math when she enters higher.

"I was interested in getting ahead in higher with the iii credits I would be awarded with by taking this form," Wallace said. "I have no involvement in math for college."

Whether students nourish Cal State Long Embankment directly after high school or transfer to the academy from Long Beach City College, the math waiver applies. Math 103 will also satisfy general didactics requirements at other CSU campuses, said Babette Benken, the Cal State Long Beach math professor who launched the course. Universities outside the CSU system will regard the class as regular university coursework.

Math 103 may exist peculiarly highly-seasoned to aspiring teachers. Course credits will count toward a liberal studies degree, which students interested in obtaining multiple-subject educational activity credentials typically pursue.

"I've learned more than than mathematical skills," said student Fall Clay. "I've learned patience, enhanced my critical thinking and gained respect for math itself."

"We've been developing new pathways and outreach that will assist recruit students into teaching," Benken said. Math 103 is 1 of them, as information technology helps aspiring teachers complete the coursework they need early, she said. Benken'due south colleague, Jen-Mei Chang, an associate professor of mathematics, taught the form.

Benken created the course after speaking with Long Beach Unified Superintendent Chris Steinhauser nigh how many students fail to earn college degrees because they struggle to meet academy math requirements. Next year the course volition likely include more students, and a similar course that will give loftier school students the chance to earn university science credit may be offered likewise.

The new form comes every bit education advocates have criticized the current math placement tests at California's customs colleges and country universities, saying they create barriers for students rather than accurately assessing their math skills.

Babette Benken is the Cal State Long Beach math professor who launched Math 103.

Credit: Courtesy of Cal State Long Beach

Babette Benken is the Cal State Long Embankment math professor who launched Math 103.

Next year the California Community Colleges System will pilot a common cess system that tests all students for the same skills. Currently, community colleges employ different tests to place students in classes, but Assembly Bill 743 required the community college system to develop 1 assessment. The new cess volition prevent students from being re-tested if they transfer to another community college and volition streamline class placement. Students increasingly attend multiple colleges to consummate caste work, and the lack of a uniform assessment resulted in more than testing for students.

Katie Hern, co-founder of the California Acceleration Projection, a statewide professional development network that supports community colleges, applauds the motility. She has argued that math placement tests underestimate how prepared incoming higher freshman are for math. Higher education policy analyst Pamela Burdman came to a similar conclusion in her report, "Degrees of Freedom: Probing Math Placement Policies at California Colleges and Universities," released in June. High school grades meliorate predict a student's college-level math abilities than placement tests do, the report institute.

Those who score depression on placement tests must take remedial courses in college. Benken fears that students placed in those classes will be less likely to graduate. She said that remedial courses are a detail obstruction for community college students. Approximately 75 per centum of incoming students at customs colleges have remedial math or English, according to the California Community Colleges Chancellor'south Role.

"We've institute students struggle to go out community higher considering of math or science requirements," Benken said. "That usually becomes a stumbling block to them in terms of transferring." She said Math 103, which for the time being volition meet exclusively in the summertime to improve accommodate loftier school students, will benefit those students who might non do well on the math placement exam.

Those students include some potential CSU students. Even though students must meet the requirements for university admission, known as A-Thousand requirements, which include math, some students score low on the math placement examination.

Xvi percent of the freshmen who entered Cal State Long Beach in 2022 needed to take at least one remedial math course. Xx-seven percent of all CSU students entering in the fall of that year needed remedial math.

While students don't need top-level math grades to qualify for Math 103, they do need to complete Algebra II because the form requires them to use algebraic models for a number of tasks, including computing trends, making predictions or designing contests. Students apply equations to different scenarios, such as whether it would be better to buy or lease a machine, Benken said.

Wallace plant the class both useful and relevant.

"I call up applying the basic math almost students know by freshman year to real-world situations is more helpful and important than that trigonometric part you won't exist using for the rest of your life unless you become a scientist or inventor that needs to know about frequencies and waves," she said.

Jen-Mei Chang is an associate professor of mathematics who taught Math 103.

Credit: Courtesy of Cal Land Long Beach

Jen-Mei Chang is an associate professor of mathematics who taught Math 103.

All students passed the class, with their skill levels ranging from average to excellent. Most fell in the eye, with but a few exhibiting strong math skills, Chang said.

"They were where you'd look them to exist after ane twelvemonth of Algebra II," she said. "With that in listen, when I designed the lessons I tried non to practise anything too rigorous."

Instead, she introduced the students to software to help them understand mathematical modeling concepts. They also installed computer programs with formulas and collaborated on problems of interest to today's tech-savvy kids, such as determining the all-time coordinates to place a cell phone tower.

While Wallace was one of Chang'southward more artistically inclined students, Fall Dirt signed upwards for the grade precisely considering numbers excite her. But Clay, also a senior at Poly High, said Math 103 was not easy.

"Applying math to real life is much more than hard than I thought because true life doesn't always requite you every piece of information needed; sometimes you need to infer or figure it out," she said.

Dirt wants to exist a pharmacist and said the class volition shave off a sliver of the six years she'll spend in school to earn a degree in the field.

Chang acknowledges that most students enrolled in the class for the take a chance to earn college credit. By the time they finished the course, however, they developed a new perspective on math. They previously thought of the discipline as but the memorization of formulas.

But in Math 103, Chang said, "Every day they had to share ideas and communicate about open-ended bug. They're not asked to exercise those things on a regular basis. They got to see a dissimilar style of solving existent-world problems."

Dirt agreed. Although she believes she's always had a knack for math, the 12th-grader said Math 103 required her to put a multifariousness of skills to use.

"I've learned more than mathematical skills," she said. "I've learned patience, enhanced my critical thinking and gained respect for math itself."

Nadra Nittle is a freelance reporter based in Southern California.

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