October 5, 2026 · Piedmont Makers
Piedmont Unified is proposing changes to its middle and high school math pathways, followed by a new math curriculum. Families can weigh in on Tuesday, October 13, in person at Havens or on Zoom.
Piedmont Unified district leadership is hosting a community meeting to propose updates to the secondary math pathways, the course sequences students follow from 6th through 12th grade. The proposal also sets up the adoption of a new math curriculum. Staff and community members are all welcome, and you can attend in person or online.
If you care about STEAM education in Piedmont’s schools, we encourage you to attend and help shape how the next generation learns math.
The pathways decide which math courses PUSD offers, in what order, and who can move faster. They determine, for example, whether a student can reach calculus before graduating. The curriculum is the textbooks and materials teachers use in class every day. The meeting covers the pathways first, with the curriculum adoption to follow, so feedback now shapes what students will learn from for years.
According to Piedmont Middle School’s math program page, most students take Common Core 6, 7, and 8 in middle school, then Integrated Math 1 in 9th grade. Students who want to accelerate have two options:
Either route leads to AP Calculus by senior year. Piedmont High’s upper-level courses include Math Analysis, Statistics, AP Calculus AB, and AP Calculus BC, with honors sections of Math Analysis and Statistics. The district’s current guidance is cautious about acceleration: if there is any doubt, it recommends the grade-level pathway.
Pathway decisions have drawn strong community interest before. The school board adopted a new set of pathways on a 3-2 vote in 2018 after a contentious public debate, and in 2023 the parent group ALPS hosted a forum to demystify the pathways for families.
Nearly everything our students build depends on math. FTC and FRC robotics teams use geometry and trigonometry to plan robot motion, and the after-school engineering programs in the Engineering Lab at Piedmont High lean on algebra constantly. When the school board approved calculus-based AP Physics C for Piedmont High after years of advocacy from parents, students, and Piedmont Makers, the math sequence behind it became even more important: students need calculus in time to take it.
We haven’t seen the proposal yet and aren’t taking a position on it. We want families who care about STEAM to hear it firsthand and give the district their feedback.
See you on October 13.