Exclusive | NYC Algebra Regents scores tank amid new disaster math curriculum

New York City has got a math problem.Less than half of city kids passed the state Algebra 1 Regents exam this past school year, after the Department of Education introduced a controversial new math curriculum critics have blasted as “a complete disaster.”Just 46.8% of Big Apple high schoolers tested “proficient” on the exam — a staggering 9-point drop from the prior year’s 56.2% pass rate, according to the state Education Department. The steep decline overlapped with the city DOE piloting a new curriculum known as “Illustrative Mathematics” in 265 of the city’s 420 high schools.Under the new blueprint, educators follow tightly scripted and rapid-paced lesson plans where students working in groups are expected to tackle problems and “discover” answers with little input from teachersThe curriculum does not even cover everything tested for in the Regents exam.“It’s alarming that we work for an agency that is seemingly okay mandating Illustrative Math when the data now officially shows how badly it hurts our students,” one high school educator who taught the new curriculum last year told The Post.   “Why don’t these people care about our kids?” The Illustrative Math curriculum, which the DOE said a majority of its high schools are adopting for Algebra this year, is part of the $34 million “NYC Solves” initiative launched under former Chancellor David Banks to boost lagging scores. Ninety-three middle schools across every borough except Staten Island also are now using the curriculum in their classrooms.

The DOE would not disclose which schools participated in the pilot program, but some educators whose students served as guinea pigs last year told The Post over the summer that their Algebra 1 exam scores tanked. In southern Queens, where all but one of the district’s 29 high schools participated in the pilot, Superintendent Josephine Van-Ess said students’ average pass rate sank from 59% to 45% on the June Regents exam...