PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia schools have been teaching math a different way this year, under Superintendent Tony Watlington’s curriculum overhaul.
In her fourth-grade math class at Henry C. Lea Elementary School, Zeviah Narva-Yalowitz, 9, is playing a card game similar to “War” with a classmate. The cards don’t have kings or queens, though. Instead, they display fractions.
“We each put a fraction card out and whichever one is bigger, we take all of them,” Zeviah told KYW Newsradio. “Sometimes [the fractions] get bigger than the whole, and they’re both bigger than the whole. And then we have to compare them.”
It’s part of the School District of Philadelphia’s new $20 million math curriculum, called Illustrative Mathematics. Watlington has said improvement is needed in a district where only 15% of students scored “proficient” on state math tests in 2022 and less than 21% of third through eighth graders scored “proficient” last year.
Zeviah’s teacher, Justin Hunter, says the curriculum demands more reasoning and less rote memorization. “It’s more cerebral. You have to do with more discussion,” Hunter said. “The kids have to struggle through the problems. It’s not so much of ‘Here’s the right answer,’ it’s ‘Why do you think it’s the right answer?’”
“The old curriculum is either A, B, C or D. What does the book want you to say? Now it’s, ‘You explain it to me,’” Hunter said.
At West Philadelphia High School, ninth-grade math teacher Kacey Kelley said the online curriculum puts a teacher’s resources in one central spot. “That’s the textbooks, that’s the online work, it’s homework assignments, it’s reflective closures. I have everything all in one place,” she said.
Illustrative Mathematics has only been in use since September, but Kelley says it’s making a difference. “So far, so good. The students are getting it,” she said. “We’re doing the lessons in order and then we’re doing our practice problems afterward, so I think by now we have a good swing at things and we’re wrapping up Unit Two now. So I think we’re seeing results.”
The change is part of Watlington’s $70 million plan to update the district’s math, English and science curricula. New materials to teach English are expected to be introduced next school year.