Maryland’s State Board of Education has adopted a new set of standards for what students should be able to understand and their performance when it comes to mathematics.
Joshua Michael, the president of the Maryland State Board of Education and a former math teacher, explained that the change to the state standards — the first since 2013, put the focus on the need to improve student performance.
“We’ve had more comments on this agenda item than any in recent memory,” he said at a meeting on Tuesday.
Michael explained that as the state pushed to raise standards, student performance dropped.
Michael told his colleagues on the board that in 2011, 26% of eighth graders’ math skills in Maryland were rated at below basic, “and today, that number is at 46%, well above the national average.”
He said the poor student performance in math was certainly affected by the pandemic, but added, “these trends started well before the pandemic.”
The new standards that describe what concepts students should be able to understand include introducing probability by the time students are in fourth grade.
Board vice president and former Prince George’s County Schools Superintendent Monica Goldson said, “It is our hope that maybe what we will do is create a generation of learners that no longer say I do not like mathematics,” but who embrace the subject and can apply the concepts in their daily lives.
The standards won’t go into effect in the classroom until the 2026-27 school year, giving a chance to each school district to integrate the new approach in their curriculum. Several board members have pointed out the need to not only make the changes in the classroom, but help parents understand the changes as well.
Board member Nick Greer noted a theme he’s heard frequently and said, “Math education seems to have changed so much since we were in classrooms ourselves as parents.”
Greer called the changes to the algebra standards “a big, seismic shift.”
Referring to the planned changes, Greer said, “I think we need parents behind it” so that they are not at a loss and left saying, “I don’t understand this and I don’t know how to help my child.”
At the same meeting on Tuesday, the state school board also approved updates to literacy standards. The changes were adopted in a unanimous vote.
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