Schools around York County are switching from traditional math to a new curriculum called Everyday Math, with good results, according to the Southern school district. Tim Scripko and Robert Drupp, Southern York County School District math facilitators, reported improved student performance and test scores to the board as a result of the Everyday Math and College Preparatory Math programs in the Southern district.

Southern replaced the traditional math program with Everyday Math at the elementary level two years ago.

The program: Everyday Math is different from traditional math because it teaches more than one way of solving an equation and then lets the student choose the method that best suits him/her.

Repeated review of math topics throughout each unit requires the student to remember for the long term, compared to learning a particular concept, and then forgetting it after the test, Scripko and Drupp said.

Traditional math programs teach one chapter at a time, for example one chapter of harder multiplication, the next chapter of harder division, said Crystal Mueller, math specialist at Shrewsbury Elementary.

In a traditional program there are a few review problems at the end of the chapter, and less problem solving, she said.

Mueller says the use of games in Everyday Math is also an integral part of the math lesson and helps the students learn.

"When you walk into an elementary math class after an hour and 15 minute lesson and still find the

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children actively engaged in math, you know you have success," Drupp told the board.

Parents can learn: Student reference books -- available in grades 3, 4 and 5 -- can be taken home nightly with examples that show parents the new strategies children are learning for solving math problems with Everyday Math methods.

College Preparatory Math, CPM, is the program to Everyday Math at the secondary level. According to Mueller, Everyday Math "marries" into CPM by continuing the same methods of repeated review of math concepts throughout each chapter. CPM places even greater emphasis on problem solving and more use of a calculator.

Improvements: Scripko said Southern Middle School has seen a 50 percent decrease in math support classes from the 2005-06 school year to the 2006-07 school year. There has also been an increased enrollment in higher-level math classes, with more students taking Algebra I and geometry in eighth grade.

Scripko also reported to the board that math proficiency scores for all grade levels have improved according to Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests.

In 2007-08, Susquehannock High School will have 271 students, a record high, enrolled in Algebra II, said Scripko. The district has to order more textbooks and materials to accommodate that number of students.

The high school is also adding new, more advanced math classes such as Algebra III, Advanced Placement Calculus and Advanced Placement Statistics.

"School districts such as Suburban and Central are following us in terms of implementing this program," said board member Jerri Groncki.

-- Reach Mindy McGee at 854-1575 or news@yorkdispatch.com.