State: Students need to do the math

The days of students having a math-free senior year are over.

Under a new state requirement, students will have to take at least one math or math-related course during each year of high school to earn a Core 40 diploma.

The change comes because colleges were seeing more students in math remediation courses who weren’t retaining enough from their high school math courses, Indiana Department of Education spokeswoman Emily Acklin said.

Now schools must decide whether they need to offer more math or math-related courses for students. High schools won’t receive any new money to offer additional courses, which means schools such as Whiteland Community High School need to consider whether new courses are needed, and if so whether other courses should be dropped to make up for the cost, Clark-Pleasant director of curriculum and instruction Becky Courtney-Knight said.

Until now, students were required to take at least three math credits, typically Algebra I, Algebra II and Geometry, including one math or physics course as juniors or seniors. Students who took those courses before their senior year then had a year off before picking up math again in college.

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