Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco

joannejacobs.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 510 posts

Re: 'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco

#71

Post by teaearlgraycold »

tiedieconderoga wrote: post #54
KiranRao0 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would expect small class sizes to be considerably more expensive.

Yeah, that's why people don't like it. The essay's thesis is that math is an unusually useful art form that we typically teach by diktat. Students are asked to memorize formulas, but they would learn more effectively (and have more fun) if teachers could work closely with them to derive and understand the solutions. Or better yet, encourage and guide them to find their own interesting formulas and patterns.

We should teach engineering classes and students would learn math to solve engineering problems. That solves the “when are we going to use this?” problem.

Re: 'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco

#72

Post by theGnuMe »

social_quotient wrote: post #20
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.

Is the word Elite needed?

It's really about SAT test prep which is primarily used for Elite admissions decisions when all else is equal.

Re: 'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco

#73

Post by rdtsc »

> The district had bragged that algebra failure rates had dropped. Families for San Francisco, a parent group, analyzed the data: Failure rates dropped after the district dropped the end-of-course exam

That’s the worst part. It just shows either complete ignorance and incompetence or deception. “Look how failure rates have decreased. We all deserve a bonus!”

They knew exactly what they were doing if they went about bragging about it.

Re: 'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco

#74

Post by CoastalCoder »

sp332 wrote: post #48
g9yuayon wrote: post #24

> "Families with resources turn to fee-required online algebra 1 courses in eighth grade, outside the public school system, or enroll their kids in private schools," Isn't this obvious result? The Russian School of Mathematics could manage to teach 10-year old kids basic algebra. And there's AOPS, there's Think Academy, and slew of local tutoring schools who can teach kids relatively advanced maths. Let alone many pr…

I think the idea is that if it’s important to rich parents, they will grudgingly fund education for everyone. But as long as they have these outlets where they can just educate their own kids and leave everyone else behind, they will.

I'm not sure that's a fair generalization. I suspect many parents have the resources to improve their own kids' educations, but not the time/energy to try changing the school system politics / bureaucracy / laws / budgets in time for their kids.

Re: 'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco

#75

Post by OldGuyInTheClub »

Fascinating article. Unclear if this stops the Boaler initiative, though. Considering the tussle between her and Jelani Nelson of Berkeley [1], I wonder what actions she'll take against her own colleagues.

[1]https://www.dailycal.org/2022/04/12/uc-berkeley-stanford-pro...

Re: 'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco

#76

Post by Mike_12345 »

NotYourLawyer wrote: post #15

Turns out math isn’t actually white supremacy. To the surprise of absolutely no one.

Math is Arabic and Islamic supremacy.

"The word algebra comes from the Arabic: الجبر, romanized: al-jabr, lit. 'reunion of broken parts,[1] bonesetting[2]' from the title of the early 9th century book ʿIlm al-jabr wa l-muqābala "The Science of Restoring and Balancing" by the Persian mathematician and astronomer al-Khwarizmi."

Re: 'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco

#79

Post by gumby »

stainablesteel wrote: post #58
jeffbee wrote: post #36

It's interesting how path-dependency makes these things seem like controversial reforms, while nearby districts have always done it this way. In Berkeley, for example, there isn't any course called "Algebra I" or II. Through 8th grade there is just math, with no differentiation. Then for 9th grade you can test into an advanced track, and people take either Math 1/2/3 or Advanced Math 1/2/3. In senior year any of thes…

i had no idea that's where this came from i've reviewed multiple resumes from people in cali for east coast jobs and noticed fresh grads who went to great schools wrote down 'advanced math' on their resume and i thought it was so strange for it to be that vague that i definitely overlooked quite a few of them because other people named courses more clearly

> noticed fresh grads who went to great schools wrote down 'advanced math' on their resume

I assume you are reviewing the resumes of college grads. Writing "advanced math" still seems weird to me.

In this case, the comment you were replying to referred to the high school curriculum in the town of Berkeley, not the eponymous university located in the same town.

Re: 'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco

#80

Post by theGnuMe »

sn41 wrote: post #62

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…

Basically the new new tutoring thing is Russian Math which teaches reasoning and abstraction.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-math-tutors-education-t...

Post reply on HN