Though Tennessee school districts usually adopt a new math curriculum every six years, the pandemic caused a two-year delay in that process.
So, as officials from Hamilton County Schools look to freshen up the system's 8-year-old math curriculum, addressing learning loss has been at the forefront of the selection process.
"As you look at the context of math nationally, unfortunately (for) many of our students during COVID, some of those foundational skills that are part of a student's mathematical understanding were impacted," Hamilton County Schools Executive Director of Learning Blake Freeman said by phone.
Textbook and curriculum adoptions occur every six years to coincide with the Tennessee State Board of Education and Tennessee Department of Education's academic standards revision process. While the majority of the content requirements remain the same as they did eight years ago, there have been some changes at the high school level.
"The high school math, algebra two, which used to be an incredibly difficult course because it has a lot of standards in it, has been narrowed a little bit," Director of High School Teaching and Learning Jamie Parris said in a phone call. "But overall, it's not a huge transition in terms of content changes."
The textbook adoption process has been in the works since December, when the Hamilton County Board of Education officially approved a committee to undertake the task. The committee was initially presented with 15 textbook selections, five each for elementary, middle and high school. It has since been narrowed to three each based on community, parent and teacher feedback. All options presented to the committee were pre-approved by the state.
"Overall, the community responses that we had were favorable to the options that were there," Parris said.
The committee placed special importance on educator input.
"We have made sure to include a wide selection of math educators that are in the classrooms every single day," Freeman said. "Because we know that they're the ones that are going to be sitting with students and answering questions of parents and grandparents and helping them through that process."
Since 2019, the district's overall math proficiency rate on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program dipped from roughly 39% proficient to 31% in 2022.
"We've made sure that in our (textbook) adoption, we're paying attention to how can we make sure that we're building that foundation back," Freeman said.
The new curriculum will cost the district between $7 million and $9.5 million for a six-year purchase, Parris said.
Officials will present their final textbook recommendation to the school board March 16, the next regular board meeting. A vote will be taken in April.
A list of textbooks as well as links to preview them can be found on the school district's website, hcde.org.
Contact Carmen Nesbitt at cnesbitt@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6327.