The Pasadena Unified School District’s Math Academy was designated “America’s most advanced math program” by the Washington Post last week, as the elite middle and high school students prepare to return to the classroom to continue studying advanced topics ranging from calculus and abstract algebra to computer programming and number theory.
An Aug. 1 column by Washington Post education writer Jay Mathews bestowed the title upon the program, adding that it had been “blast[ing] through the pandemic.”
The Math Academy began as a tutoring program run by husband-and-wife duo Jason and Sandy Roberts before being formally adopted into the PUSD curriculum in 2017. It’s steadily grown ever since.
“Our program has steadily increased in numbers every year as we welcome new 6th-grade classes into our program,” Math Academy co-founder and Executive Director Sandy Roberts said.
said. “Our oldest students in the program are now going to be seniors in high school. So since 2017, we have completed the entire high school curriculum and gotten that approved by the University of California system so that they do meet the A through G requirements.”
In addition, the program is now “fully integrated” into the district’s math program, Roberts added. “So a math academy class is just another regular math class within the district.”
All PUSD children take a math aptitude test in the 5th grade to determine the best math level placement moving forward with their education, she explained.
So how advanced is the coursework?
“We have our 8th graders complete the BC calculus curriculum, and they take the BC Calculus [Advanced Placement] exam by the end of 8th grade,” according to Roberts. “Very few students in the country do that… It’s a very rare thing in other programs, but it’s a regular thing in ours.”
The Math Academy curriculum aims to provide high school seniors with the equivalent knowledge of an undergraduate math degree by the time they graduate, representatives said.
The academy has grown in size following along with the initial cohort of students.
“We are very excited that this year, our oldest kids are going to be seniors in high school,” Roberts said. “They will be the first kids in our program applying to universities, and I’m very interested to see how they are received and placed in the university math sequences.”
After a year of online instruction, Roberts said it will also be good to be back in classrooms.
“As we’re going back to school in the fall, that’s going to be another re-acclimation process that we’ll have to go through. But I think we always treat the kids with a lot of support and understanding and compassion at the same time, still having high expectations of them,” she said.
“One of the criticisms that we hear often is that we’re pushing these kids beyond their limits,” Roberts added. “But in actuality, it’s really the kids who are very interested in going through material at this fast pace. It’s not for everyone certainly, but for the kids who can achieve this, it’s fantastic and they really thrive.”
“So we just are very happy and privileged to be able to offer courses for these kids that meet their needs and challenge them in an appropriate way,” she said.
Alex Andrionopoulos has two sons in the Math Academy.
“The program is fantastic and unique in its ability to teach kids advanced math in a systematic way,” he said. “The most amazing thing is that kids do not need to be ‘gifted’ or ‘special’ to benefit from Math Academy. They only need to want to do this. The rest is taken care of by the teachers and the online component.”
Andrionopoulos’ eldest son just completed 8th grade and scored the highest available score, a 5, on the AP Calculus BC exam, he said. His younger son just finished a Calculus AB course, earning the top grade in his class.
“The program is fantastic, but let’s make sure that everyone interested knows it is not miraculous. The kids need to want to do well and be interested in math,” Andrionopoulos said. “Also, like with every other subject, they will need support and encouragement from the parents. The program will not turn a disinterested student into a math genius overnight. “
But for his children, “We like what they are doing, so much so that if it were not for the Math Academy program, we would have pulled our children out of PUSD due to the district’s poor performance in the other subjects.”
Nina Paddock’s son is among this year’s Math Academy seniors after beginning with the program in the 4th grade, before it was officially brought into the district curriculum. He seems to enjoy being challenged, she said.
“My son was very bright, but I think this is the first thing that I saw that truly engaged and challenged him. And that’s what I think is so amazing about it,” she said. “School was always so easy for him, and he liked it, it was okay, but it was so easy.”
In the academy, “the math that they’re doing just blows your mind,” according to Paddock. “The thing that’s so amazing, too, is they’ve really been able to keep the kids engaged all the way through and created this wonderful cohort for the kids.”
Paddock said her son is currently having a great time working a summer internship researching math theory through the academy.
More information on the PUSD’s Math Academy is available online at mathacademy.us.
Related:
Parent Volunteers, Spearhead Radical Acceleration Math Class for PUSD Students With Amazing Results
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One thought on “PUSD Math Academy Touted as ‘America’s Most Advanced Math Program’ by Washington Post”
I am SO proud of my Grandson for all that he has achieved, attending these classes. He’s a chip off of the block, as his father was a a whiz back in High School with Calculus. I’m proud of them both.