MATH, ENGLISH TEACHERS FROM UNM, SECONDARY EDUCATION, TO MEET OCT.1

September 24, 2003

MATH, ENGLISH TEACHERS FROM UNM, SECONDARY EDUCATION, TO MEET OCT. 1

The University of New Mexico College of Arts and Sciences is hosting a session to bring high school math and English teachers together with their UNM counterparts. The event is scheduled Wednesday, Oct. 1 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Rotunda Room at the Science and Technology Park on University Blvd. SE.

Wanda Martin, associate professor of English and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Doug Earick, coordinator of K-12 outreach for the college, are organizing the session in response to the growing number of students who enter UNM unprepared for college level work.

"We want to talk to high school teachers about our expectations of freshmen. This year, more than 30 percent of the incoming freshmen have academic deficiencies," said Martin, adding that math is the real "killer."

Martin and Earick invited principals and teachers from 37 public and private schools that are within driving distance of UNM and that sent students to UNM in fall 2002. "We didn't want this to be all about Albuquerque. Rio Rancho, Santa Fe and Los Alamos also send many students to UNM," said Earick.

"We are not holding the meeting to lay blame, but rather to share information. We need to develop a better understanding of the high school English and math curricula and state standards. We need to compare what students are expected to know by the end of the senior year to our expectations after one semester at UNM," said Martin.

"We intend to share institutional research with each school that participates. We have tracked the performance of the students from each high school over the last two years and will share that information with participating schools," she said.

Math 120, a pre-college level course, has 1,400 students in it this semester. "Approximately 45 to 50 percent of those students will fail this course this semester," said Martin.

Earick, a former Albuquerque High School teacher, said they are concerned that students' aspirations may exceed what they're prepared to do. "Students who want to pursue careers in science or engineering find that they are supposed to take Math 162, calculus, their first semester. What we're discovering is that many students need three or four semesters of preparatory math to get into the program," he said.

A course designated a "killer" is Biology 121. "Students have trouble because of their inability to do algebraic problem solving," said Earick. The students aren't incapable, Earick said, they just need better preparation. Of the top15 courses on the "killer course list," seven are math and five others are science courses that depend on mathematical competence.

Earick said that one reason some incoming freshmen have weak math skills is that they frequently satisfy high school math requirements by junior year and don't take math as seniors.

Martin and Earick also suggest that students' math problems probably go back to middle school. "Middle schools have the option to hire either a teacher with a K-8 certification or a secondary certification. Many of the math teachers may not be fully qualified to teach mathematics," said Martin.

Martin points to a new three-tier teacher licensure system that will require teachers to attain more education and experience to move up the pay scale as a way to create faculties considered "highly qualified" in their academic subjects. This is required by 2006 by "No Child Left Behind."

The English Department faces the same problem as math.

"UNM offers 100 sections [classes] of English 101. When we heard that we were anticipating 3,000 incoming freshmen, we thought we would have to offer more sections. As it turns out, we didn't. But we did have to offer more remedial English courses," said Scott Sanders, English Department chair.

"The study of literature and writing critical literary essays that is often required of high school students doesn't orient them to college level work. They need to read more non-fiction texts and be able to ascertain the writer's claim, identify the structures within the text. We work with freshmen on summary writing because they have a difficult time seeing the basic relationships in a piece," said Martin.

Martin said that the faculty in Arts and Sciences play a role in the equation, as well. Teachers take content area courses in Arts and Sciences. For example, a high school English teacher takes 36 hours in English to be qualified.

"We need to be active in raising teachers' content knowledge. Many teachers are asked to teach outside their areas of expertise or in areas where their knowledge is outdated," Martin said.

Martin said that UNM educates about 41 percent of New Mexico's teachers, and these students receive most of their general education and content courses from Arts and Sciences. "There is nothing in it for us to blame high school teachers. We're implicated at every stage of the game," she said.

For more information about the meeting, contact Wanda Martin at 277-3046.

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