MANCHESTER — District officials are acknowledging that they need to examine how math is taught in city schools, after close to 200 freshmen at Central High — nearly one third of the class — failed at least one semester of algebra last year.

“It is of concern to us,” said Superintendent Thomas Brennan, adding that his office will be working with principals in the coming days to better understand the reasons for the high failure rate.

At Memorial High School, 140 freshmen out of roughly 500 in the class, or 28 percent, failed at least one semester of algebra last year, according to Principal Arthur Adamakos.

Officials at Manchester High School West did not return phone calls requesting information about pass/fail rates in algebra.

The high algebra failure rate was disclosed in a parents meeting last week by Central High Principal Ronald Mailhot.

“We have a math problem,” he said flatly.

He said around 200 freshmen last year were “demoted,” or failed, because they did not pass a required subject, and that the “vast majority” had failed algebra.

Mailhot said part of the reason math classes are so crowded this year is due to the large number of students who are having to retake algebra.

Brennan said there may be several reasons for the high failure rate, but he acknowledged that part of the problem may be a lack of transition from the elementary schools to the middle schools and then again to the high schools.

“There may be issues in terms of coordination and integration at the transition points,” he said. “That's something we'll be looking at.”

At a community meeting last week, several parents raised concerns about the Everyday Mathematics curriculum, which is used through grade five. The program employs a novel approach to math, emphasizing patterns over some of the traditional ways of teaching arithmetic, such as memorization of multiplication tables.

Issues with the curriculum and ways it might be supplemented are things his office would be examining, Brennan said.

“We put so much energy into (Everyday Math) in 2008, when it was first implemented, but what have we done lately to help staff members who came into the district without that professional development,” he said. “We'll be taking a multifaceted look at the problem.”

Brennan also said it may be necessary to provide math teachers more time to work with their counterparts in the upper and lower schools.

Teachers would likely regard the time it would take for these coordination activities as professional development, for which there is little funding in the school budget.

Memorial Principal Adamakos said algebra has long been a challenging subject for students.

“Any time a student fails any class is a concern,” he said. “We need to examine the students' preparation for the class or whether they were properly placed in the class. I'm wondering how much it has to do with attendance. We have to study it further,” he said.

tsiefer@unionleader.com