SUPTS. MEMO. NO. 37
March 6, 1998 |
TO: | Division Superintendents |
FROM: | Jo Lynne Demary
Assistant Superintendent for Instruction |
SUBJECT: | New Standards of Learning for Optional Mathematics Courses--Probability and Statistics and Discrete Mathematics |
On February 26, 1998, the Board of Education approved Standards of Learning for two new optional mathematics courses--Probability and Statistics and Discrete Mathematics. The prerequisite content for these courses is the Standards of Learning for Algebra II. We encourage you to distribute the attached standards to curriculum specialists and teachers in your school division. School divisions who offer courses in Probability and Statistics and Discrete Mathematics are encouraged to align local curricula with the new Standards of Learning. The new standards were drafted by a small writing committee of teachers and mathematics specialists during work sessions in Summer 1997. The draft standards were distributed to local school division mathematics supervisors and contact persons and college/university mathematics faculty as part of a statewide technical field review in Fall 1997. Feedback from this field review was analyzed by an Executive Committee comprised of classroom teachers, mathematics supervisors, and college faculty. Comments on the draft standards were overwhelmingly positive. Recommendations from the field review were used to develop the Standards of Learning, which were approved by the Board of Education. The purpose of the Probability and Statistics course is to present concepts and techniques for collecting and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, and making predictions. The Discrete Mathematics course involves the study of mathematical properties of sets and systems that have a countable (discrete) number of elements. In this course, the main focus is problem solving in a discrete setting. If you have questions about the new Standards of Learning, please call Dr. Patricia I. Wright, Director of Secondary Instruction, or Mrs. Maureen Hijar, Mathematics Specialist, at (804) 225-2880. JLD/piw Attachment: A hard copy of this memo and its attachment will be sent to the superintendent's office.