Putnam County Tennessee schools took a bit of a leap into the unknown by deciding to start teaching integrated math in the Fall of 2011. What is integrated math? From the first course, it combines features of various branches of math – like geometry, calculus and trigonometry. Students learn and grapple with higher level concepts earlier on in their education, but continue to use and build on those concepts throughout the years. It’s early to gauge the results for sure so far, but they seem to increase student’s retention and overall understanding of math concepts. Although they’ve had to create the own curriculum and Tennessee testing remains the same, teachers are seeing some higher test scores. In addition, teachers become more cross-functional and students’ learning is more in line with the new Common Core standards.