Maryland teenager Tiffanee Snow has been studying algebra since she began attending Forestville High School last fall. At first, she couldn't stand algebra. Now, she's making As. Snow credits the innovative teaching style of her math teacher for her success. She especially likes the team approach to classwork.

 "Working together helps us get through the problems better than when it's just one person doing it all by himself," Snow says. She hasn't decided what she wants to do when she finishes school, but Snow is considering careers in either cosmetology, photography, or teaching preschool. And although she is excelling in math these days, Snow says she still doesn't see how algebra is used in the outside world.

 While Forestville junior Cedric Lyles cannot offer Snow examples from the outside world, he can assure her that without mastering algebra it will be impossible for her to move on to higher forms of math.

 "You can't do geometry or calculus without algebra," says Lyles, who views advanced math courses as essential to his future plans. Lyles is a musician who has set his sites on attending the Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. Ultimately, he hopes to earn a graduate degree in business so that he can fulfill his dream of starting a music production company.

 Lyles and Snow are two of the 906 students who attend Forestville High--one of twenty comprehensive high schools in Maryland's Prince George's County, a suburb of Washington, D.C. The county was the second school system in the nation to sign up with the College Board's Equity 2000 program.

 The difference between Forestville and most other schools around the country is that everyone here--whether he or she aspires to become a cosmetologist, a surgeon or an entrepreneur--is expected to complete algebra and geometry by the end of the tenth grade. Subjects such as consumer math and general math no longer exist at Forestville--or anywhere else in the county's school system.