ROLE OF A NEW MACHINE

By ELIZABETH GLEICK

This week when 121,000 high school seniors file into classrooms around the country to take the calculus Advanced Placement examination, they will need to come armed with more than a couple of sharpened No. 2 pencils and a firm grasp of derivatives; they will also require the latest that math technology has to offer. Under new rules set by the College Board, all students who take the test must have a hand-held graphing calculator. Those who lack this powerful machine, which graphs complex equations, will have to sign a waiver stating that they will not challenge their scores if they do poorly on the exam because they do not use a graphing calculator.

To apostles of the "calculus-reform movement," who advocate learning through technology, graphing calculators are to calculus students what microwave ovens are to popcorn lovers; once the device is used, there is no going back. "If you don't use this technology, then you're really teaching as if you were in the 1940s," says Judith Broadwin, an A.P. math teacher at Jericho High School in New York. "The few people who object to this do so because they're afraid of it."

Other teachers, many of them in public schools, protest that the College Board is rushing to embrace new technology without considering the many students who cannot afford an $80-to-$100 calculator. And the effort required to learn how to use it, some teachers believe, far outweighs the benefits. "The students grow dependent on a machine to do all the work for them," says Joan Harrison, who teaches A.P. math in Durham, North Carolina. "And I'm driven nuts because I'm having to spend valuable class time trying to get the student to push the right buttons. Where's the learning in that?" Only a few of her pupils own a calculator; the others use ones belonging to the school. Barbara Ross, who teaches A.P. math at Highland Park High School in New Jersey, is so outraged by the new policy that last January she lodged a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union. Acting on behalf of the A.C.L.U., Rutgers University's Urban Legal Clinic is preparing to challenge the requirement on the basis of, among other things, discrimination.

Wade Curry, director of the Advanced Placement Program for the College Board, insists that students and teachers have been given ample opportunity to obtain and learn to operate the new calculators. Texas Instruments, the largest supplier of the machines, has helped finance training sessions for teachers and has provided some 2,000 calculators to 300 schools at a 25%-to-30% discount. Says Richard Schaar, a vice president at TI: "Equity is certainly a critical issue, but the graphing calculator is a relatively affordable solution to the need for equipment and technology in the classroom. Think about a computer system. How many graphing calculators can you get for the cost of a PC?"

The controversy will not help this year's test takers, who will need the calculators for as much as 15% of the exam. Those scoring below a 4 (out of 5) may not receive college credit in calculus, thereby losing a chance to cut tuition costs. And some students feel they may be losing far more. Says Ernesto Andrianantoandro, a Highland Park senior who hopes to borrow a calculator from his school to take the exam: "I took this class because I wanted to do calculus and use my brain, not some machine's brain."

--Reported by Lisa H. Towle/Raleigh-Durham

With reporting by LISA H. TOWLE/RALEIGH-DURHAM