Getting Down to the Core

The Chicago school district takes an 'intentional approach' to high school courses.

Chicago

Nicolette Norris says her Algebra 1 students are talking and moving around in class a lot this year. And she’s happy about it.

The freshmen at John Hope College Preparatory High School are up on their feet, explaining problems to their classmates. They’re sitting in groups, figuring how to attack equations. They’re solving other problems on a brand-new set of laptop computers.

To Ms. Norris, all the activity shows a more engaged kind of learning, which she attributes to a new mathematics curriculum, Cognitive Tutor, that emphasizes applying...