S. Mac Healey and Angelina J. Parker:

The Harvard Math Department will pilot a new introductory course aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students, according to Harvard’s Director of Introductory Math Brendan A. Kelly.

The course, titled Math MA5, will run alongside two established math courses — Math MA and MB — with an expanded five-day schedule.

Kelly said that students in MA5 will meet with “one of two instructors all five days” with “a variety of different activities” on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

He said the Covid-19 pandemic led to gaps in students’ math skills and learning abilities, prompting the need for a new introductory course.

“The last two years, we saw students who were in Math MA and faced a challenge that was unreasonable given the supports we had in the course. So we wanted to think about, ‘How can we create a course that really helps students step up to their aspirations?’” he said.

“Students don’t have the skills that we had intended downstream in the curriculum, and so it creates different trajectories in students’ math abilities,” Kelly added.

Despite the schedule differences, MA5 will reflect the material and structure of MA and MB, collectively known as Math M.

“Math MA5 is actually embedded in Math M,” Kelly said.

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Amanda Rae Aragon:

This feels like I good time to remind people that when I left New Mexico to attend a top 100 university, nearly all my classmates took CALCULUS in high school. Meanwhile, most of my NM peers topped out at Algebra II.

much more on remedial math.