Comparison of Attitudes
An outside study examined student attitudes towards mathematics, comparing 182 first-year IMP students with 217 algebra I students from the same or comparable schools (Clarke, Wallbridge, and Fraser, 1996). The study found that students who participated in the IMP program appeared to be more confident than their peers in conventional classes; to subscribe to a view of mathematics as having arisen to meet the needs of society, rather than as a set of arbitrary rules; to value communication in mathematics learning more highly than students in conventional classes; and to be more likely than their conventionally-taught peers to see a mathematical element in everyday activity.
Comparing Performance After Secondary School
When IMP was first conceived, it was felt that students who had had four years of IMP should be followed after high school, whether they went on to college or directly to the work force. It was hoped that their performance could be compared to that of students who had gone through a traditional mathematics program. Therefore, random samples were taken of IMP and non-IMP students graduating in 1994 from the first four high schools using the fourth-year curriculum.
About 200 of these students were interviewed during Spring 1994. However, these students no longer represented a random sample since not all students selected agreed to participate. In the non-IMP group there was an over representation from the suburban high school (59%) and an under representation from the inner-city high school (17%). In addition, a disproportionate number of respondents (27%) had been accelerated into geometry as 9th graders. None of the IMP students were from that accelerated group when they entered high school. Given the profile of the non-IMP students responding, that group could not be used as a valid control group to measure achievement in college.