> In response to George's question, the Massachusetts Board of Higher
> Education several years ago passed a resolution stating that three years
> of high school math should be required as a prerequisite for college
> level math. The board had in mind elementarty algebra. geometry and
> intermediate algebra. At Cape Cod Com. Col. we previously gave
> graduation credit for elementary and Intermediate algebra. About ten
> years ago we revisited our graduation requirements and changed them to
> require college math for graduation with an Associates in Arts degree.
> The Associate in Science degree programs chose their own math
> rerquirements. The developmental math classes are now given
> institutional credit for financial aid purposes so students can get
> credit for full time status. They do not count towards graduation. This
> is also true for our developmental english courses.
> Interestingly some of the state colleges accept our intermesiate
> algebra as college math for some of their programs. This despite the
> Board's interest in maintaining a college level math rerquirement. In
> addition a number of other community colleges use intermediate algebra
> as a college math. This poses a little problem for us when our
> administrtion questions our math requirements in an attempt to make
> getting a degree easier for our students. We have been able to resist
> changes so far. There is currently a committee at the state level which
> is examining the entire developmental structure and another committee
> looking at the testing procedures used by all colleges to place
> students. Hold onto you hats for those results.
> Essentially our math faculty has determined that we are not even
> offering the same level courses as the high schools since we meet for 45
> sessions versus 180 in the high schools and the amount of material we
> cover is much less. I can personally verify that as I have observed and
> worked with my two sons who have gone up through calculus in high
> school. We do not come close to the coverage they had in their algebra
> courses.
> It would seem to me then that offering intermediate algebra as a
> college level course would be quite inappropriate. We use intermediate
> algebra as a prerequisite for Precalculus, which is college level
> algebra, and other math classes such as Statistics, Survey of Math and
> Business Math. Interestingly we do not offer any courses in geometry
> despite the Board's suggestion that this be a prerequisite for college
> math. God forbid if we should try to add an extra course which might
> benefit our students but require extra time or effort? (Sorry about the
> editorial comment but I couldn't resist)
>
> Regards,
> Ted Panitz tpanitz@cape.com
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