FOX News is reporting (and left leaning media are not) that the State of Virgina has just decided in the name of racial “equity” to eliminate all accelerated math courses prior to the 11th Grade.
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is moving to eliminate all accelerated math options prior to 11th grade, effectively keeping higher-achieving students from advancing as they usually would in the school system.
Ian Serotkin, Loudoun Conty School Board Member comments:
My first reaction to this was that it seemed absolutely bananas, and that it sets a soft cap on the number of higher math courses students are going to be able to take. My second reaction was to wonder which outside math learning franchises (Kaplan, Mathnasium, etc.) are publicly traded, because I foresee their stock soaring.
Apparently, the deep-seated theme here is that the schools cannot have some kids doing advanced work in math because it makes other students feel bad. The Procrustean solution is to reverse-engineer the system starting from feelings, and advanced math be damned (along with the students willing to work extra hard at math). Other probable foundational principles feed the urge to “equity”: Hard work and linear thinking are “white.” And see here:
[T]he woke approach to mathematics is particularly poisonous to those it pretends to want to help. Let’s start with the reasonable assumption that mathematical talent is equally distributed at birth to children from all socio-economic backgrounds, independent of ethnicity, sex and race. Those born in poor, uneducated families have clear educational disadvantages relative to others. But mathematics can act as a powerful equalizer. Through its set of well-defined, culturally unbiased, unambiguous set of rules, mathematics gives smart kids the potential to be, at least in this respect, on equal footing with all others. They can stand out by simply finding the right answers to questions with objective results.
There is no such thing as “white” mathematics. There is no reason to assume, as the activists do, that minority kids are not capable of mathematics or of finding the “right answers.” And there can be no justification for, in the name of “equity” or anything else, depriving students of the rigorous education that they need to succeed. The real antiracists will stand up and oppose this nonsense.
I guess having well-engineered buildings, bridges, and airplanes is “white technology,” since they all depend on math. As do so many other things we use just to get through the day now.
It sounds terrible, but probably should keep in mind the Fox bias in the reporting. They peddle fear and outrage to folks already afraid of, and outraged by, change and different perspectives. I looked at the program’s website. While all kids will have to take the “basics” through 10th grade, it looks like the basics include algebra and geometry… stuff some kids would never otherwise see. So it might be that they are actually trying to ensure all kids get a more rigorous math education by mandating these elevated concepts through 10th grade? There are still all the traditional “upper level” offerings through trig, calculus, stats, data science, computer science etc. and they’ve made a lot of classes available as one semester offerings, which I think is great … if you discover you hate stats, you don’t have to waste 2 semesters on it. It looks to me like a kid with a strong interest snd aptitude wouldn’t be held back … but that’s at a glance and without doing any real research.
That said, my first reaction was oh no what about the kids like me and my kid who needed the advanced math offerings – How will they succeed! And maybe it will turn out to be a really shitty idea. Or maybe it won’t. But I sense that they are trying to do something they think is helpful. Also, Fox sometimes does cover what I think are legit stories that are buried at CNN, and vice versa. In my opinion, both can be sensationalist with Fox having the edge in that department. I think they may be overblowing this one.
I know what you mean about it being FOX, but they do offer a video from a state official who indicates that these classes are being cut for reasons of “equity.” I agree that the devil is in the details, but I can tell you as a parent that I would be horrified at this idea because students progress at very different rates that can be confidently tested in math. Having no advanced classes until 11th grade means that kids who are ready to move up in lower grades will be trapped and bored. Remember, too, that this is Virgina, who has already done some significant work dismantling a public school(Thomas Jefferson School) specifically designed for gifted students. As though the entrance test to identify highly qualified students no longer means anything – – -it was eliminated to the horror of many hard working students. Move like this are favorites of Critical Race Theorists. Their fingerprints are all over this one, IMO. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/thomas-jefferson-high-admissions-change/2020/10/07/0a1f8faa-08a7-11eb-9be6-cf25fb429f1a_story.html
Now the backtrack:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/virginia-northam-education-math-equity-framework
The latest accomplishment of Critical Race Theory: California Department of Education proposes cutting all advanced math classes for high achieving students in California Public Schools. Too much success by Asian American Students. Cutting these classes will hurt talented students of all “races.” Follow this thread and weep. https://twitter.com/SteveMillerOC/status/1389456546753437699