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As someone who graduated a couple years ago this policy change feels ridiculous to me. The difference between someone entering college with either one or two ye

by foota 8y ago

As someone who graduated a couple years ago this policy change feels ridiculous to me. The difference between someone entering college with either one or two years of calculus and someone entering with precalc completed is huge, and any policy that moves away from that is a bad idea. The benefits imo are mostly around allowing more flexibility in scheduling for taking classes that require prereqs of calculus, which you're blocked from the first year otherwise. This can be compounded if you come in with many of your school's general requirements met, as this can make it hard to find classes to take that will be helpful towards your desired major. Additionally, some programs have (poorly designed) hard pipeline dependencies that mean you're set back from a couple quarters to a year if you enter without calculus completed.

Consultant32452 8y ago
This is just another nail in the coffin of public schooling. We've watered down the high school diploma so much that 20% of high school graduates are functionally illiterate. Based on the increasing requirements for bachelor's degrees where it doesn't seem to make sense on the surface, it seems employers have caught on to how meaningless it is.
- duado 8y ago
  Who is “we”? Public schools at the local level in the US are very diverse. If you have the money you can find public school systems as good as Ivy League colleges, with a self-selected peer population of students with highly engaged parents.
crispyambulance 8y ago
> The difference between someone entering college > with either one or two years of calculus and > someone entering with precalc completed is huge... I am not so sure about that. Too many students enter college with a half-assed grasp of math because they were rushed and pressured through the subject matter before they were ready to handle it. Combine that with grade-inflation and the fact that so many students just can't focus on one thing at a time, leads to a really sub-optimal outcome IMHO. Students who go through private schools with mastery-based curriculum are far better prepared for rigorous college math, not because they take 2 years of calculus, but because they've actually mastered the subject matter that they've studied. There should be no shame in slowing things down but keeping the course work rigorous for college-bound students.

by foota 8y ago

Consultant32452 8y ago

This is just another nail in the coffin of public schooling. We've watered down the high school diploma so much that 20% of high school graduates are functionally illiterate. Based on the increasing requirements for bachelor's degrees where it doesn't seem to make sense on the surface, it seems employers have caught on to how meaningless it is.

duado 8y ago
Who is “we”? Public schools at the local level in the US are very diverse. If you have the money you can find public school systems as good as Ivy League colleges, with a self-selected peer population of students with highly engaged parents.

crispyambulance 8y ago

> The difference between someone entering college > with either one or two years of calculus and > someone entering with precalc completed is huge... I am not so sure about that. Too many students enter college with a half-assed grasp of math because they were rushed and pressured through the subject matter before they were ready to handle it. Combine that with grade-inflation and the fact that so many students just can't focus on one thing at a time, leads to a really sub-optimal outcome IMHO. Students who go through private schools with mastery-based curriculum are far better prepared for rigorous college math, not because they take 2 years of calculus, but because they've actually mastered the subject matter that they've studied. There should be no shame in slowing things down but keeping the course work rigorous for college-bound students.