Alvin ISD’s board of trustees at its April 9 meeting approved a new course for ninth grade students who did not pass the eighth grade math State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness.

What you need to know

The course will focus on correcting common learning errors students have in math to improve understanding and performance in the subject, according to agenda documents.

Agenda documents state students who are unsuccessful in the eighth grade math STAAR will be automatically placed in this course.

Students will be able to improve their math learning skills through the following topics offered in the course:

• Error analysis
• Strategic learning
• Critical thinking and problem solving
• Study habits and self-regulation
• Collaboration and independence
• Intellectual curiosity

Ninth grade students placed in the course will also take Algebra I, which is a regular math course that is taken at this grade level, according to agenda documents.

Diving in deeper

This course comes from the Texas Education Agency and was originally approved for use beginning in 2015-16, according to the TEA.

The course was created “in response to the needs of struggling mathematics students entering ninth and 10th grades,” according to the TEA.

Quote of note

“This is a TEA innovative course that our educators have sought out to implement into Alvin ISD,” Superintendent Carol Nelson said at the meeting. “Depending on the number of students, it’d be offered multiple times throughout the day. It is going to take a place of an elective [course].”