Georgia's New Math Curriculum

The state of Georgia has recently rolled out a more rigorous, integrated math curriculum, which first hit the high schools in the fall of 2008 and is scheduled to be fully implemented throughout all grade levels during the 2011-12 school year. It has receive much criticism for its level of rigor, its student-driven philosophy and the elimination of any technical/vocational diploma throughout the state. I offer the following solution to a rapidly growing problem

It is always a struggle and an adjustment to phase out an old curriculum and phase in a new one. We have struggled at our school like most others in the state with the new math curriculum, but teachers at our school and in our system have worked very hard at developing resources to support it. And I do not question that the rigor in the old math curriculum needed to be stepped up a notch or two (or three) in order to properly prepare our students for college and beyond. Which brings me to my point ...

The biggest issue I have is that the state is expecting all high school students to attend college, and therefore, has eliminated the technical/vocational track in the high schools as a result of that mindset. The day all students attend college is the day that a college diploma will not be worth the paper it is printed on. There will always be a percentage of students that are simply not college material that can still become productive members of the work force and support themselves with the proper training. These are the students getting "left behind" (to use government-speak) in the current situation. For those that cannot survive this college-preparatory math curriculum, despite constant tutoring and remediation, there is no where for them to go. It is either college or bust, and bust with no high school diploma is going to result in a lot of students with nothing to contribute to our society. I fear that we are going to be looking at graduation rates dipping into the 50% neighborhood for the class of 2012 (the 1st graduating class with the new curriculum) from what I am seeing.

If these students that simply cannot survive this math curriculum just had another option, I think a lot a potential problems could be solved.