Virginia to eliminate advanced math courses because not enough minorities qualify

Next up, ban kindergarten because minorities can't dunk their cookies in their milk correctly.

kartelite wrote:

nevermorenevertheless wrote:

Where the heck do you live? Most high schools around me don't even have calculus as an offering since not enough students want to take it and they don't have any teacher who know how to do it. The big high schools usually have calculus and statistics offerings as their highest courses.

I’m pretty sure most high schools offer calculus. I went to a small public high school in rural Virginia and we had about 20 students taking it. Bigger schools will often offer linear algebra, differential equations, and multi-variable calculus. I majored in math in undergrad and I don’t think any of the math majors had not taken calc in HS. Unfortunately, the people who took and understand the benefit of an accelerated math and engineering curriculum tend not to be well represented among those responsible for developing publication education policy.

I also went to high school in rural VA. In fact, I probably graduated the same year as kartelite since we were running in college at the same time. My math courses were:

6 - 6th grade math

7 - Algebra I

8 - Geometry

9 - Algebra II

10 - Calculus

11 - Trigonometry

12 - AP Calculus

My HS had a graduating class of just under 200. About 20 kids had this same course progression.

This has to be concerning to colleges like Virginia Tech that have lots of courses that need advanced computational skills, unless their curriculum is changing too.

cry me a river wrote:

Following for White Grievance Thread of the Day, but this was pretty much done earlier today, so this is just a sympathy follow, relly.

What? Are you deaf to the grievances of people of all colors who have smart kids or to smart kids themselves? A poster, "Seyta," makes a fine addition to this thread and you complain about white people! Cry your own river, idiot.

new math wrote:

This has to be concerning to colleges like Virginia Tech that have lots of courses that need advanced computational skills, unless their curriculum is changing too.

My guess is VT and other universities (all/most of which have advanced math and engineering courses; there is nothing special about VT) fully support this idea BECAUSE it will better prepare students for these classes.

new math wrote:

This has to be concerning to colleges like Virginia Tech that have lots of courses that need advanced computational skills, unless their curriculum is changing too.

LOL

lol this guy sucks wrote:

VA LOCAL MAN wrote:

But carry on with your attempts at "lib owning"...

And you might even take note of which states seem to have some skill as regards education.

Hint: They're mostly blue. And not red.

https://wallethub.com/edu/e/states-with-the-best-schools/5335

You sound like a real beacon of nonpartisanship. A true light in the darkness.

So to post here you have to be either:

(1) A Trumpy Racist Authoritarian Supporting Whacko

or

(2) A Beacon of Nonpartisanship

Anyone else need not apply?

macdaddy ogg wrote:

JosePublico wrote:

Charter schools too.

I’ve been hearing this for decades 🙄

I never finish school. My kid just got accepted at one the higher rated UC's . His charter schools were key. We removed his regular public school too. That school wanted us to teach any thing above average , and for him to self teach , while they worked a program designed to try to get all students to the middle ranges of academic achievement.

Bonus: Diversity of students and teachers was way better at the charter.

neil.. wrote:

cool..instead of rewarding those who advance, they want to bring down everybody else to create this false idea that we're all the same and that we're all equals

I am a former math teacher. This "dumbing down" of math has been happening for a while now. It is why I don't teach anymore. I was increasingly forced to give students who had not turned in homework or passed a test all semester a C in the class just because they are minorities and the school didn't want any issues. These were often students that acted like hooligans in my class and kept other students from being able to learn as well. You cannot send them out of class anymore because that is also racist. They can just disrupt your class, not do any work, and collect their passing grade. And they know it, so they are emboldened. It has made quality teaching virtually impossible, and a miserable experience.

I also strongly believe that insisting on lower standards for minorities is blatantly racist, and I think it is ultimately going to backfire. Kids in high school are keenly aware that minorities have a much easier ride than a white male. Fast forward 10 years and you need an accountant or heart surgeon (where accuracy and quality really matter). What is the one demographic that you can be sure has been held to the highest standard and not passed through on affirmative action? White males. People can act as woke as they want, but when Pop Pop is about to go in for triple bypass you are not going to be looking for female hispanic doctors. It is an insult to all of the minorities who legitimately did the work and earned the grades.

I have been watching Virginia closely because it went straight blue in the 2018 election. I have been hoping that my fears of an all left government might be unfounded, but Virginia gets loonier by the day. Do people really want this?

I strongly suspect that the left is pushing social justice in school curriculum and dumbing down math because ultimately the left wants to churn out kids from public school that are woke AF but unable to calculate their tax burden. Excellence is now racist.

Good riddance.

As a current Virginia educator, I am thrilled that you and others that share your mindset are leaving the profession.

Great post.

You want to provide well distributed opportunity , not take it away and make school a zoo. Also, guess who is going to have the resources to pay for private school, or take on the parent teaching , or provide the discipline for self teaching via Kahn, or drive an hour to a charter school? Not , on average , the parents of the minority kids.

problem is private and charter schools will be forced to take on these same kids that are ruining public school....then where will you take your kid to get a good education? nowhere cause avoiding the left agenda will make you racist.

bannnned i got wrote:

JosePublico wrote:

Great post.

You want to provide well distributed opportunity , not take it away and make school a zoo. Also, guess who is going to have the resources to pay for private school, or take on the parent teaching , or provide the discipline for self teaching via Kahn, or drive an hour to a charter school? Not , on average , the parents of the minority kids.

problem is private and charter schools will be forced to take on these same kids that are ruining public school....then where will you take your kid to get a good education? nowhere cause avoiding the left agenda will make you racist.

The disruptive kids are there in charters, have been there. They can only negatively impact the elective and standard classes . I have some sympathy. compared to making so many kids go to separate "alternative " or "special ed " schools, there probably is overall good in mainstreaming as many as possible. Just keep your kids academic achievement up there, teach them not to be whiners, and they will be fine. All people have to deal with some bogus stuff in life and white boys and men can deal with our share. Being accustomed to being around a large variety of people is useful in life , just don't let them hold you back.

I agree. Many high schools will offer Calculus that may touch on differential equations as an introduction but are there really high schools that offer a full course of DE? That would have been a dream at my school.

I actually read this article and the idea seems really cool.

Right now, it seems like the problem there is that if you don't take advanced math in middle school, you can't get to the highest level of math in high school. They see this as a problem because poorer kids (disproportionately minorities) are less likely to take those classes because their parents won't make them, and most kids won't choose to on their own.

By pushing that decision off till 11th grade, hopefully those kids are mature enough to decide if they want to take an advanced math class. This way, the decision is more on them than their parents. It also allows them to specialize a bit more if they know they want to go into STEM or something that requires higher math versus being a hairdresser who doesn't need 2 years of calculus.

They also are removing traditional classes like algebra and geometry, and replacing it with "fundamental concepts" which will instead interweave math concepts from algebra, geometry, statistics, etc in a way that hopefully is more useful, makes more sense, and exposes young people to more ideas so that when things change in 11th grade, they can make an educated choice on what they want to take.

This actually seems like such a cool idea to me, and of course some things need to be ironed out, but I think it's definitely a good thing to try.

Just to add on a little, in the article they specifically say that kids will have the option to take calculus or higher in high school. I go to a well funded school and our highest math class is AP Calculus BC (Calc 1 and 2 in college) so it appears that students will still be able to take this highest level of math. It's not like there are people who were going to take Calc BC but if this plan goes into effect, they'll be stuck at pre cal.

The only thing I don't like is that there appears to be no flexibility. It might be a good idea to let some kids who are really advanced move forward early, but only by taking like the next year's exam and aceing it or something. My friend skipped precal because he got like a 93 on the exam after taking algebra 2/trig, so he went straight to calculus. Still allowing for that would be good.

This actually sounds like a very bad idea to me.

The article did not mention minorities.

This is just another thread for racists, KKK types and neo nazis to come and vomit their racism on letsrun which now has a reputation as the stormfront.com of sports.

So instead of finding a way to encourage the disadvantaged minorities (your belief) to take math earlier, your solution is to dumb it down for everyone?