4 ms·

SF responds to parents in algebra dispute

4 points by mbgaxyz 10y ago

protomyth 10y ago
Yet district officials have stood firmly behind a policy that keeps all students together in math through middle school, eliminating the tracking of students into classes based on their level of academic ability, which often separates white, Asian and wealthy students from their low-income, Latino and black peers. To bypass the district’s policy, some public school parents have been paying for outside algebra courses to prepare their children to take a placement test that would allow them to enroll in geometry freshman year. But the courses are expensive, and not everyone can afford them. So, to "fix" a racial issue the district created an economic issue. These people teach children and don't get logical outcomes of their actions.
ec109685 10y ago
In my school, it was Alegebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, AB Calculus. The only benefit of Algebra in Middle School was that it set you up for BC Calculus senior year.
- DrScump 10y ago
  No Trigonometry?
  - ec109685 10y ago
    I don't think we had a special class for it.
tomohawk 10y ago
I was ready for Algrebra in 6th grade, but we moved and I had to wait until 8th grade. It was boring repeating arithmetic for 2 additional years. I'm glad I was able to get it in 8th grade, though, as I was able to get BC Calc in high school. The engineering students in college who first saw calculus in college didn't usually do very well. In university, I did an informal poll of the foreign students I met over the years I was there. Irrespective of major, they pretty much all said they got to Algebra in 6th grade. On the other hand, I don't really see the point of forcing everyone to take math as early as possible or as advanced as possible. In our state, nurses need to take and pass college Algebra, which is equivalent to Algebra II, Trig, and some Analytical Geometry and Linear Algebra. This prevents a lot of people from becoming nurses. The argument is that this teaches abstract reasoning skills. Such a waste to prevent people from becoming nurses over a skill they'll never use, and which nothing else they learn needs.

4 points by mbgaxyz 10y ago

Yet district officials have stood firmly behind a policy that keeps all students together in math through middle school, eliminating the tracking of students into classes based on their level of academic ability, which often separates white, Asian and wealthy students from their low-income, Latino and black peers. To bypass the district’s policy, some public school parents have been paying for outside algebra courses to prepare their children to take a placement test that would allow them to enroll in geometry freshman year. But the courses are expensive, and not everyone can afford them. So, to "fix" a racial issue the district created an economic issue. These people teach children and don't get logical outcomes of their actions.

ec109685 10y ago

In my school, it was Alegebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, AB Calculus. The only benefit of Algebra in Middle School was that it set you up for BC Calculus senior year.

DrScump 10y ago
No Trigonometry?
- ec109685 10y ago
  I don't think we had a special class for it.

tomohawk 10y ago

I was ready for Algrebra in 6th grade, but we moved and I had to wait until 8th grade. It was boring repeating arithmetic for 2 additional years. I'm glad I was able to get it in 8th grade, though, as I was able to get BC Calc in high school. The engineering students in college who first saw calculus in college didn't usually do very well. In university, I did an informal poll of the foreign students I met over the years I was there. Irrespective of major, they pretty much all said they got to Algebra in 6th grade. On the other hand, I don't really see the point of forcing everyone to take math as early as possible or as advanced as possible. In our state, nurses need to take and pass college Algebra, which is equivalent to Algebra II, Trig, and some Analytical Geometry and Linear Algebra. This prevents a lot of people from becoming nurses. The argument is that this teaches abstract reasoning skills. Such a waste to prevent people from becoming nurses over a skill they'll never use, and which nothing else they learn needs.