Every year, fifth graders across the district undergo a trying rite of passage. What seems like just another standardized test can decide their future, influencing their classes, interests, and motivation.

The Orleans-Hanna Prognosis Test, designed in 1988 by education psychologist Gerald S. Hanna, is taken by fifth graders across Millard Public Schools District, setting the path of their math journey for the rest of their K-12 education.

However, with Millard North set to completely redesign its math curriculum starting next year, this set-in-stone approach to math for Millard students is set to change drastically.

While the revamping will not touch any calculus courses, nearly all other math courses will experience a major adjustment in how they operate, along with differences in the course structures themselves.

“In the past, students took two full years of algebra (Algebra I and Algebra II) with a year of geometry in between. To streamline this process, we will now be switching to a semester system,” Math Department Head Aaron Harding said. “Students will take a semester of algebra (Algebra I) and then a semester of geometry  (Geometry I) and so on, until their senior year, when they will take Algebra 4 and Geometry 4.”

Regarding the timing, Harding explains that the math curriculum cycle in Millard is set to align with state standard cycles to allow for easier adjustments.

“Every subject has a cycle to rewrite its curriculum and [the district] times these changes in tandem with the new state standards. It’s a seven-year cycle, and the state just released their standards, so we can just go along with that,” Harding said.

Besides these structural differences, there will also be a significant number of new courses added to the math department, including the new AP Precalculus course in place of regular and honors precalculus courses.

“Besides adding the new AP Precalculus course, we have decided to add a large number of new math electives. These include a semester of trigonometry for students to take after completing college algebra as well as some new elective courses, including Math in the Arts, Discrete Math, Skilled and Technical Math, and Math for Life,” Harding said.

These electives will add great variety to the math courses offered by MN, but they also serve a larger purpose.

“When we saw the numbers on how many seniors were taking math classes, it was a little surprising how many chose not to take any. We added these electives with this [lack of interest in math from seniors] in mind, and we believe the new courses will make a positive impact on our enrollment numbers,” Harding said.

But these developments will not only affect students. They also will have a considerable impact on both the material that teachers will have to cover as well as the way that they have to cover it.

“I have never taught a basic probability and statistics class before. I plan to tailor concepts from [my] AP Statistics class to make them more approachable for all students. However, we will be using data analysis platforms like Excel and Google Sheets to help analyze data, unlike AP Stats which primarily uses graphing calculators,” math teacher Meghan Dovali said.

Specifically, the new semester-long courses for algebra and geometry will be the first time math teachers will teach such short classes, so there will be challenges in planning.

With these new big changes to the curriculum, Dovali believes that the most challenging area is the time it takes to create new lessons, resources, and assessments. She hopes that the math department will be able to secure publisher resources to save teachers the copious amount of work it would otherwise take to create content from scratch.

Besides teachers, students also believe that this new curriculum will streamline and strengthen the math curriculum and will allow them to process information more in-depth.

“I feel like this could be a good move as there are a lot of redundant topics that we cover multiple times throughout our schooling career. It’ll save time and make the process of learning new things quicker,” junior Sanjith Ananda Krishna, who took the current Algebra II class last year, said.

However, Krishna also believes that the new curriculum, which aims to reduce the amount of time spent reviewing previous course material due to the increased proximity of content, might make it more difficult to hold onto concepts from previous courses.

Overall, these advancements will lead to a strikingly different mathematics department in the upcoming school year, unlike anything it has ever gone through previously.

Students will now have the ability to create their own math journeys, finally moving away from the rigid confines, like the Orleans-Hanna test, that once defined their paths.