When incoming freshmen look at their classes next year, they might notice it’s slightly different than it was for this year’s freshman class.

Before COVID-19 in 2020, according to the SC Department of Education, only 44% of students had met or exceeded expectations in math. Since then the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations has only increased to 51%. 

Because of these findings, math class pathways will change for the 2025-2026 school year. The change means students will learn geometry in 9th grade instead of 10th, so more class options will open up for students after Algebra 1.

“If in middle school our kids can be ready for geometry as a freshman, then that does work,” Sara Foghani, math department chair, said.

Foghani believes the new curriculum could work to improve End of Course (EOC) test scores.

“I think for our school, it’s necessary [to change the curriculum] since our EOC score is low,” Foghani said.

However, since this change won’t go into effect until next year, some think the change is too soon.

“We have less than a year already to get ready for these classes, but we don’t know anything about them. [It’s a] sudden change,” Alisha Seymour, math teacher, said. “I guess it depends on how you handle change, and I don’t think teachers are going to handle this big of a change easily.”

Foghani does believe in the new curriculum, but that belief does not come without concern. 

“I just hope that kids come to Geometry as [freshmen] with enough knowledge of Algebra and this way [it] will help,” Foghani said.