I wanted to do further maths in my own time but my school wouldn’t let me. But then all the top universities entrance exams required further maths to even understand the questions.
California Discourages Schools from Offering Advanced Middle School Math (2023)
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Re: California Discourages Schools from Offering Advanced Middle School Math (2023)
#32I went to a high school that hard very hard time offering advanced level courses. But they argued, successfully, that gifted students were just the other side of the 'special needs' spectrum and had the same right to resources as students who needed extra help. They got the funding and the advanced courses were a success and continue to this day. They also managed to keep the bar high - i.e. they kept it hard and many students who initially signed up would drop down to regular levels after a few weeks.
Re: California Discourages Schools from Offering Advanced Middle School Math (2023)
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
> inadequate public schools invariably increase achievement gaps between socioeconomic classes. or maybe the people with education and resources decide to volunteer and fix their own community? if all of the greedy, self-interested, disengaged people decide to leave, how is that not an improvement?
>or maybe the people with education and resources decide to volunteer and fix their own community? The prototypical wealthy person is a small business owner or a well paid professional/executive. It's likely that they're very busy, and the prospect of them spending Wednesday afternoons volunteering at their schools is... unlikely. >if all of the greedy, self-interested, disengaged people decide to leave, how is that…
In reality, stay at home moms in wealthy communities are literally and figuratively drivers of public (and private) education.
Our PTA raised two orders of magnitude more money than the one four miles away in a poorer area. And the classrooms were filled with parents doing teacher gruntwork - and they also kept an eye on all the kids.
It's hard to overstate how much a good PTA (and good parents) contribute, at least at the elementary school level.
Re: California Discourages Schools from Offering Advanced Middle School Math (2023)
#34One problem with the Left in general is they tend to try and equalize humanity by dragging people down instead of raising people up.
California could just as easily say "how do we get more underprivileged kids into advanced math?" and implement a multi-year effort across grades and schools. But that would be work...and against union contracts. Instead, just drop the subjects.
Re: California Discourages Schools from Offering Advanced Middle School Math (2023)
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
> inadequate public schools invariably increase achievement gaps between socioeconomic classes. or maybe the people with education and resources decide to volunteer and fix their own community? if all of the greedy, self-interested, disengaged people decide to leave, how is that not an improvement?
>or maybe the people with education and resources decide to volunteer and fix their own community? The prototypical wealthy person is a small business owner or a well paid professional/executive. It's likely that they're very busy, and the prospect of them spending Wednesday afternoons volunteering at their schools is... unlikely. >if all of the greedy, self-interested, disengaged people decide to leave, how is that…
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Re: California Discourages Schools from Offering Advanced Middle School Math (2023)
#36> Under the CMF, Conrad wrote, California schools are encouraged, but not required, to delay Algebra I until ninth grade— Where in the framework is this? The closest I can find to this is a reference in the high school section of the framework referencing a time in the last when California schools did more to push students to accelerate courses in middle school than they do currently, and negative research about abou…
> Where in the framework is this?
Appendix D: Course Placement and Sequences (https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ma/cf/documents/mathfw-appendixd.p...):
> The California Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CA CCSSM) represent a tight progression of skills and knowledge that is inherently rigorous and designed to provide a strong foundation for success in the new, more advanced Algebra I and Mathematics I courses that are typically taken by most students in grade nine.
And:
> Prior to the development of the CA CCSSM, “Algebra I” was taught in grade eight to an increasing number of students. That same course name will be the default for grade nine, as most students who move forward will complete the CA CCSSM for grade eight—and the new version of Algebra I is more rigorous and more demanding than previous versions of Algebra I.
Page 833 shows a diagram that by default gets students only to Precalculus in 12th grade, passing through Algebra I or Math I in 9th.
If CA is right that the new Algebra I is more demanding than the old then this could just be a question of semantics and definitions (though with calculus not an option by default it's still pretty clear that they're not covering as much material by default), but Conrad definitely didn't invent the idea of Algebra I being moved to ninth grade.
Re: California Discourages Schools from Offering Advanced Middle School Math (2023)
#37The CMF is big, but maybe this is part of what TFA is talking about. From Chapter 8 pp. 28-30, https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ma/cf/
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Some students will be ready to accelerate into Algebra I or Mathematics I in eighth grade, and, where they are ready to do so successfully, this can support greater access to a broader range of advanced courses for them. At the same time, successful acceleration requires a strong mathematical foundation. Research indicates that in the era in which California policy encouraged all students to take Algebra in eighth grade, success for many students was undermined; widespread acceleration did not enable students to progress as expected to subsequent courses. The authors of one study found that many students had to repeat Algebra I in ninth grade and did not extend their course taking to advanced courses. The authors concluded that: “encouraging more students to take eighth-grade algebra does not by itself lead to significantly more students taking advanced mathematics in high school, nor does it lead to substantial increases in performances in higher mathematics CST.” (Liang, Heckman, and Abedi, 2012, 338). Other studies found mixed effects of this policy across districts of different kinds and for different types of students (Domina et al. 2014; Domina et al. 2015).
These challenges are no doubt a function of students’ curricular readiness—whether they have mastered the right foundations—and the quality of teaching both before and during the course itself. One racially and economically diverse New York middle school that successfully accelerated all of its students offers an example of the conditions that enabled stronger outcomes. The school ended tracking in mathematics and gave all students access to the more advanced three-year curriculum sequence that had previously been reserved to a smaller number. This sequence included in eighth grade the Mathematics I integrated course normally offered in ninth grade. Researchers followed three cohorts in the earlier tracked sequence and three cohorts in the more rigorous untracked sequence. They found that both the initially lower and higher achieving students who learned in the later heterogeneous courses took more advanced math, enjoyed math more and passed the state Regents test in New York sooner than previously. This success was supported by a carefully revised curriculum in grades six through eight, creation of alternate-day support classes, known as mathematics workshops, to assist any students needing extra help, and establishment of common planning periods for mathematics teachers so they could develop stronger pedagogies together (Burris, Heubert, and Levin, 2006).
For schools that offer an eighth grade Algebra course or a Mathematics I course as an option in lieu of Common Core Math 8, both careful plans for instruction that links to students’ prior course taking and an assessment of readiness should be considered. Such an assessment might be coupled with supplementary or summer courses that provide the kind of support for readiness that Bob Moses’ Algebra Project has provided for many years for underrepresented students tackling Algebra (Moses and Cobb, 2002).
One consideration in sequencing mathematics courses is the desire to enable students who would like to reach Calculus by the end of high school to do so. Currently, most high schools require courses in Algebra, Geometry, Algebra II, and Pre-calculus before taking a course in Calculus, or a pathway of Mathematics I, II, III, then Precalculus. This sequence means that students cannot easily reach Calculus in high school unless they have taken a high school algebra course or Mathematics I in middle school.
An alternative to eighth grade acceleration would be to adjust the high school curriculum instead, eliminating redundancies in the content of current courses, so that students do not need four courses before Calculus. As enacted, Algebra II tends to repeat a significant amount of the content of Algebra I, and Precalculus repeats content from Algebra II. While recognizing that some repetition of content has value, further analysis should be conducted to evaluate how high school course pathways may be redesigned to create more streamlined pathways that allow students to take three years of middle school foundations and still reach advanced mathematics courses such as calculus. Schools may also organize supplemental course taking in summer programs, to allow students who start Algebra or Mathematics I in ninth grade to be able to take Calculus in high school if they choose. (See chapter 9 for other possible strategies high schools can adopt.)
Re: California Discourages Schools from Offering Advanced Middle School Math (2023)
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
> inadequate public schools invariably increase achievement gaps between socioeconomic classes. or maybe the people with education and resources decide to volunteer and fix their own community? if all of the greedy, self-interested, disengaged people decide to leave, how is that not an improvement?
>or maybe the people with education and resources decide to volunteer and fix their own community? The prototypical wealthy person is a small business owner or a well paid professional/executive. It's likely that they're very busy, and the prospect of them spending Wednesday afternoons volunteering at their schools is... unlikely. >if all of the greedy, self-interested, disengaged people decide to leave, how is that…
The stay at home moms in those families have lots of free time and are often similarly capable and educated to their no-lifer dads. They just choose the mom job
Re: California Discourages Schools from Offering Advanced Middle School Math (2023)
#39One problem with the Left in general is they tend to try and equalize humanity by dragging people down instead of raising people up. California could just as easily say "how do we get more underprivileged kids into advanced math?" and implement a multi-year effort across grades and schools. But that would be work...and against union contracts. Instead, just drop the subjects.
Dragging down is human nature. When optimizing metrics is always easier to push down than up
Re: California Discourages Schools from Offering Advanced Middle School Math (2023)
#40Well if an administrator needs to improve the relative outcome for low-performing students, and can't come up with a better way than to lower the upside for everyone as a whole, I wouldn't really call them any kind of an educator.
No but I world call then a successful administrator