Starting with the 2023-2024 school year, the math department will offer College Algebra and Honors PreCalc instead of Math 4A and 4B which was offered the years before. 

Previously, Math 4A translated to PreCalculus on transcript while 4B was Integrated Math but what was written on the transcript didn’t best reflect the content of the class.

“In order to prepare students for classes like calculus, Integrated Math 4 was not the best curriculum,” said Math 3 teacher Nicole DeRoeck. “They were trying to prepare students for those classes and were gearing further and further away from the Integrated Math 4 curriculum.”

When the math department came together to fix the issue, they decided that a slight change of the name would be the move to take.

“We’re just sort of making its name match with what we felt like the goal of the class always was,” said math teacher Kyle Eck.

Honors PreCalculus, one of the new classes, will be more similar to calculus classes.. 

“The goal of honors PreCalculus is to get students ready for AP Calculus and Math 4B. That was always sort of the internal goal of Math 4B,” said Eck.

The other new course, College Algebra, will have a bigger change.

“We’re not doing a dramatic change to the curriculum, but what we are changing is the goal of the class is more closely aligned with a class like a college class called College Algebra,” said Eck.

Students anticipate this new choice next year. 

“I see an advantage to taking Honors College Algebra because it helps me with the entrance exams in college,” said Math 3 student Jamari Williams ‘25 

Changing the names more clearly shows the path students want to take in their math education.

“If you feel like you’re going to take the calculus direction, then PreCalculus is sort of a necessary class to understand the mechanics of functions that are needed for the calculus level,” said Eck.

The new math courses will help students choose their own path of math education and what they want to learn.

“Honors college algebra is an exciting opportunity to advance my brain,” Said Emma Feca ‘24.