School District 300’s Board of Education is expected to make geometry a mandatory course for high school students and change its weighted grading system so students taking music will not have an advantage when it comes to grade point average.
The changes are expected to be approved by the Carpentersville-based board next month and would become part of the curriculum next year.
“Students are not performing in geometry,” Tom Hay, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said at a school board meeting Monday.
District 300 would need to spend $85,000 to purchase more geometry textbooks. Hay said 38 percent of the ACT, a college preparatory exam taken by juniors, has geometry questions.
Hay also urged the board to change the grading system, taking music and 19 other courses off the list of weighted courses. Hay said most of the criticism has been with music in that students playing band instruments have an unfair advantage when it comes to grade point average.
Core courses such as math, science, social studies and English would continue to be weighted.
The Board of Education will vote on the curriculum changes Jan. 12.
