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Students also learn concepts from probability and statistics.
To evaluate the curriculum, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied transcripts of more than 1,000 students who graduated in 1993 from three California high schools that have used the program since 1989. The transcript study is part of a five-year evaluation of the program being completed by Norman L. Webb, a research scientist at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, in Madison. A summary of the study appeared in a recent edition of the center's newsletter. Mr. Webb said he wasn't sure why the imp students scored better even in nonmath courses. One reason, he said, may be that the program puts more emphasis on writing than a traditional math curriculum does.