So far the numbers of students coming out of any sort of non-traditional
high school math program has been very small, so data is hard to come by.
The only formal comparison study I know of was conducted by Art Coxford, a
math faculty member at the University of Michigan. You should contact
Coxford for more details. But here is the executive summary, as I understand
it: The University always gets a large number of freshmen from one
particular affluent suburban district, a district with two high schools. One
of those schools uses a traditional algebra/geometry/etc. curriculum. The
other high school in that district has been using one of the new
N.S.F.-funded integrated curricula for the last several years. Because the
U. of Michigan is very selective, nearly all freshmen there start at
calculus or above. The math dept. collected historical data on calculus
success of students from that suburb, before and after the introduction of
the new curriculum at the one high school. The results showed that the
students coming from the school with the N.S.F.-funded curriculum did
(statistically) significantly better in their calculus classes at U.M.
Moreover, back when both schools used a traditional curriculum, this was not
the case. So the only data I have seen indicates that students who had this
one integrated curriculum seemed to do better in calculus than students in
the same district, who had a more traditional curriculum.
Kathy Burgis
----------
>From: "Nancy Sattler" <nsattler@TERRA.CC.OH.US>
>To: mathedcc@archives.math.utk.edu
>Subject: [MATHEDCC] RE:Integrated Math
>Date: Wed, Sep 15, 1999, 3:43 PM
>
>
>
>Please help me! Have you noticed a difference between students taking
>calculus who have had integrated math in high school and those who have had
>the traditional math series?
>
>I would appreciate your thoughts!
>
>Nancy
>
>
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