A Clash Over Math Plan In Hinsdale D-86

DARIEN, IL — The superintendent of Hinsdale High School District 86 made an impassioned plea last week to continue with the district's plan to move away from a traditional math curriculum.

As it stands, she said, the district is treating minority students "very differently" with the current curriculum.

But a new school board majority was skeptical about the plan, which the old board approved last October.

Under the "integrated math" plan, the district would end its lowest level math classes at Hinsdale Central. Hinsdale South eliminated those courses three years ago. Part of the reason to end the level, officials said, was to ensure more equity. Officials noted the low level math classes — known as G level — include disproportionate numbers of low-income and African American students.

With the G-level track, students are unable to leave high school with grade-level performance in math and little exposure to college-level math, officials said.

The plan also calls for rearranging the math curriculum so that courses link to each other in terms of knowledge and skills. For instance, students would be able to take two periods of math in their sophomore year, which would allow them to take an advanced level math class their senior year.

The board members elected in April — Terri Walker, Debbie Levinthal, Peggy James and Jeff Waters — said they were concerned that not enough evidence existed to show that integrated math improved student outcomes. A few years ago, they noted, Georgia abandoned its mandate for integrated math.

Meanwhile, the board's holdovers — Cynthia Hanson, Kathleen Hirsman and Erik Held — supported continuing with the plan, which would take effect in the 2022-23 school year.

During the discussion at last week's board meeting, member Cynthia Hanson said the new members were avoiding asking the questions they really wanted to ask.

"You've been dancing around," Hanson said. "Ask your questions, really, because I feel like there's an elephant in the room. Ask exactly what you want to ask, then we can get a valid response."

Hanson, the only board member who lives in the Hinsdale South zone, said she was "extremely frustrated" because she believed the new members' arguments were about how the plan would affect one school or another.

"In the very recent past, we asked for the two schools to start communicating and aligning their curriculum because every student in this district deserves the same education, standards, objectives, the same courses," she said. "I feel like the conversation is going in reverse," with arguments about whether a particular move would help one school or another.

Superintendent Tammy Prentiss said a G-level math student at Hinsdale Central is in a situation that violates the district's statement for greater equity.

"They remain a G student. They are not exposed to grade-level math," Prentiss said. "We are purposely and consciously treating particular identified classes of people — those with disabilities, those who are a minority — very differently than we are in other math classes."

Member Levinthal agreed that it was important to align courses at South and Central and move away from pigeonholing students. But she said the district also wants to ensure it is optimizing students' outcomes.

Prentiss responded, "But we're currently not and that's what the data is telling us."

Levinthal said, "So we're trying this—"

"We're not trying this," Prentiss said. "We know there are decades of research that remedial tracks and general education are not successful in closing those gaps. It's not a new thing. It's been around forever."

Until the last couple of years, Prentiss said, the district never before gave its faculty the opportunity to do the work to see whether their curriculums were working. The result of that history, she said, is "why we have 38 grading scales. Which is why we have 52 different courses called 10 different things in the district. This has never been aligned, and there has never been anything organized around it."

She said it was important to give the faculty the tools to make needed changes, which the district has started with math and science.

"We have a responsibility of a tradition of excellence for every learner," she said. "There are benefits for all students."

The board made no decision on the math plan. But its president, Walker, indicated one would be made at the board's meeting next Wednesday.