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'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco

joannejacobs.com

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Re: 'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco

#61

Post by theGnuMe »

imgabe wrote: post #34
theGnuMe wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My contrarian take is that algebra and calculus are pre requisites for for ap calc which is primarily used for elite college admission decisions.

Algebra is basic math that every adult should know in and of itself, not something that is only needed to take AP calculus.

Nobody said otherwise.

It's still there in high school fwiw: https://www.sfusd.edu/learning/curriculum/high-school/mathem...

This is about dropping algebra I in 8th grade which is where you need to take it in order to prep for AP exams and the SAT basically. Algebra I (8th), trig/Geometry 9th, Algebra II 10th, pre-calc/ calculus 11th, AP calc 12th.

Anyway, these are all basically memorization and it is more important to teach mathematical reasoning and understanding skills vs pattern matching.

I mean ChatGPT LLMs score a 5 on AP calc now for god sakes. However, it scores a 2 on ap English language comprehension and literature. Oh the irony.

https://www.thestar.com/business/technology/2023/03/14/chatg...

Re: 'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco

#62

Post by sn41 »

A related question: can anyone provide a link to what the K-12 syllabus of the former Eastern bloc actually was? Certainly USSR and Hungary must have had impressive curricula. I had a Croatian friend who said that his basic skills in algorithms (which were very advanced from my viewpoint) was based on his math schooling in the former Yugoslavia, which he said treated very advanced concepts early on.

Is there any link to an English version of these syllabi?

Re: 'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco

#63

Post by remote_phone »

If you were a hardcore racist and systematically wanted to keep Black and Brown kids uneducated, you would throw out all expectations and requirements and let them pass every year until they graduated high school with almost no education. The white kids and the rich kids will find a way to educate themselves, either through tutors or private school but the poor kids with no options would be stuck in this worthless system and graduate high school completely uneducated.

This is exactly what’s going on right now in SFUSD, and it’s so blatantly bad I honestly believe they are white supremacists in charge of the curriculum. What we are seeing is true systematic racism. How do they expect these kids to compete intellectually when they have lived an entire lifetime with lowered expectations?

Re: 'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco

#64

Post by sometimeshuman »

In 1st grade it was an unspoken understanding that Latin kids are put in the slow class. It's understandable since most of us didn't speak English at home. But my teacher realized that I was advanced for my age so she put me in the back of the class with another classmate who didn't know any English. An hour or two a day we would sit in the back and I would read to her, translate words, and practice spelling. She seemed happy that someone was helping her and I felt great helping a classmate.

One day I mentioned this to my parents. They didn't understand/believe it at first. But the next time I mentioned it they understood and instead of feeling proud they were clearly upset. Then a few months later I wrote a poem that impressed the school teachers and at that point they moved me to the "fast" class and I never tutored again until college.

Why couldn't I have done both? Would I have learned more if I had been forever in the slow class but tutoring half of that time ? That seems better than where it we are headed -- where everyone is in the metaphorical slow class and the advanced kids likely become numb and disinterested.

Re: 'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco

#67

Post by nordsieck »

praxulus wrote: post #32

I live in Seattle, not San Francisco, but we have some similar issues with our schools. I'd really prefer to send my son to our local public schools, but if they aren't challenging him appropriately then my wife and I obviously aren't going to just give up on his education. We'll either pay for extracurricular enrichment like the person in this article, move to a wealthy suburb, or send him to a private school instea…

> I live in Seattle

Luckily, everyone in the area gets access to Running Start[1]. Doesn't address the earlier years of schooling, though.

If your children are in HS, I'd really recommend sitting downing with a HS councilor to make sure that your kids take the classes that are required by the district for HS, but aren't required for a college degree (I'm thinking of speech here, but there may be others) in the first 2 years of HS. That way they get the most benefit out of their Junior and Senior years, if they decide to go that route.

I'm honestly not sure how the GPA thing works - I know AP classes can sometimes let kids increase their GPA above 4.0 for admissions purposes. But as someone who did both Running Start and AP classes, IMO, the actual college credit was way more valuable. But I also went to school in state, so those credits transferred nicely. May be a totally different story if you're shooting for Ivys.

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1. https://www.k12.wa.us/student-success/support-programs/dual-...

Re: 'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco

#68

Post by theGnuMe »

zdragnar wrote: post #43
theGnuMe wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My contrarian take is that algebra and calculus are pre requisites for for ap calc which is primarily used for elite college admission decisions.

Memorizing things like SOHCAHTOA and FOIL may not be a vital life skill for everyone, but everyone can benefit from the base logical thinking required to identify a variable, break a problem down into steps, plan and execute a solution. At a bare minimum, the basics of algebra (and to a lesser extent precalc, such as understanding limits and differentials) foster a type of abstract thinking and skills that pretty muc…

Except that the traditional way of teaching the subject does not reason from first principles which is what you are advocating. The new math stuff does... I think parents hate it cause we don't understand it and it screws up the college pipeline.

To illustrate my point of the uselessness of our conventional mathematical training. ChatGPT gets a 700 out of 800 on the SAT Math section, but ask ChatGPT a reasoning question that requires math... it can't do it. That shows you just how useless the SAT actually is except for training kids to pattern match.

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