Mountain View High School officials have launched a new program for incoming freshmen who struggled with algebra in the eighth grade.
Ninth-graders who failed or skipped algebra in the eighth grade now have the option to start the year enrolled in geo-
metry rather than retaking algebra. Requiring struggling students to repeat algebra, according to Principal Keith Moody, was a model that proved ineffective.
“We are giving them a different exposure with geometry,” Moody said.
While taking the geometry class, freshmen will be concurrently enrolled in a math lab designed to prepare them to retake Algebra I as sophomores.
Assistant Superintendent Brigitte Sarraf said the program will offer ninth-graders a fresh start by postponing algebra in favor of geometry.
Sarraf said that both Los Altos and Mountain View high schools have problems with incoming freshmen not mastering eighth-grade algebra. The two schools handle the problem in different ways, however.
Los Altos High offers struggling incoming freshmen an integrated algebra class, so they retake a different version of algebra, better suited to address their deficiencies.
The new Mountain View program will disperse the students among other geometry students to see how they fare with a different mathematical discipline.
Sarraf said the district has tried a number of different ways to ensure the success of incoming math students, and that Mountain View’s new program is an “extreme” measure to try to solve the issue.
