CHARLOTTE -- North Carolina teachers spent the summer training to teach high school math in a new way this year.
"We spent the summer working with more than 200 math teachers to get them ready,” said Ann Clark, superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
Clark says teachers are getting ready to use a more integrated approach with new standards set by the state in June.
"I think it's going to be a great thing for our students this year,” said Rob Leichner, secondary math specialist for CMS.
Leichner is one of about two dozen educators across the state who helped create the new curriculum, and most of it, he says comes from feedback from students and teachers.
"We looked at every single one of those survey responses, about 800 survey responses, and incorporated those into the new standards that were written,” said Leichner.
So basically, students used to learn math in separate topics like Algebra I or Geometry.
But a few years ago, North Carolina adopted Common Core standards, which integrated the subjects over three levels: Math 1, 2 and 3.
Teachers say it’s been confusing because there was never a starting or stopping point for teaching certain concepts which overlapped each course.
So now, the new standards give them clear concepts and functions to teach at each level.
"We were using three different kinds of textbooks, you know,” said Hema Lalwani, secondary math specialist at CMS.
But now Lalwani is working with CMS teachers to create a textbook to follow the new standards, and CMS is even getting it published with Walch.
"And based on those topics, Walch aligned their materials like the worksheets, the powerpoints, the teaching materials and the student materials,” said Lalwani.
One, easy guide North Carolina teachers didn't have before.
"They know the content, it's just a matter of adjusting which course it's being taught with,” said Clark.
So learning math is easier for students.