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Kate Taylor over at The New York Times is reporting on the backlash from the recent poor showing of New York students on the Algebra Regents examination. Passing this examination is required for students to graduate from high school in New York.
From the article (semi-paywalled: Search for article title in the your favorite search engine and click on the result to bypass):
In 2013, concerned that high school graduates were not prepared for college, the State Board of Regents revamped the exams students must pass to graduate, starting with the English and Algebra I tests. The board decided that, where previously students needed a score of only 65 on a 100-point scale to pass, in coming years they would have to score at a “college- and career-ready” level, which this year was deemed to be a 79 in English, and a 74 in Algebra.
The result: On the 2015 Algebra I exam, which was supposed to align with the new Common Core curriculum, the percentage of students passing fell to 63 percent, down nine points from the old exam last year. And less than a quarter of students scored at the college-ready level. In New York City, which has a concentration of poor and minority students, only 52 percent of students passed the 2015 exam, down from 65 percent the previous year on the old exam. Just 16 percent reached the “college-ready” level.
[Continued after the break.]
[...] Algebra is a stumbling block not only for high school students, but also for students in community colleges, many of whom founder in algebra-based remedial courses. Public colleges hoping to increase their graduation rates have been asking whether algebra should be the default math course. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, working with Dr. Treisman, has created courses in statistics and quantitative reasoning that are meant to be both more engaging and more practical for many students than college-level algebra. Close to 50 community colleges now offer the courses.
In “The Math Myth: And Other Stem Delusions,” to be published by the New Press in March, Andrew Hacker, an emeritus professor of political science at Queens College, argues that it is wrongheaded to force all students to study algebra.
But Dr. Treisman said that allowing students to graduate from high school without taking algebra “would dramatically reduce their options.” And he said there was value in making students pass an algebra exam to graduate, as well.
Should algebra be required for graduation from high school? Should extra resources be devoted to ensuring that students learn these concepts and methods? What's the value in doing so?
I say that learning algebra provides improved numeracy, enhances abstract thinking and opens the door to critical thinking skills. What say you, Soylentils?
As usual, Heinlein had it right, IMHO:
Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best, he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear his shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2015, @05:04PM
Let's search for "STEM"!
University of Puget Sound: "We demand the university provide the Dean of Diversity and Inclusion and Title IX officer with additional staff to aid in the search processes to hire professors from underrepresented identities in disciplines that reside outside of their racial and sexual/gender identity. We demand these professors specifically be hired in STEM, English, Music, Theater, Politics & Government, Business, and International Political Economy which are disciplines traditionally filled by dominant identity groups."
Beloit College: "d. Review the hiring practices of professors of color in the STEM fields."
So they want established STEM professors kicked out and replaced with nonwhite nonmales. Because having a Latino woman teach me how to build a bridge will definitely make my bridge less racist and less sexist.
Dartmouth College: "Increase budget and support for FYSEP and pre-orientation STEM program for students who come from under-resourced backgrounds."
So, more money, but not really for STEM.
Let's search for "cultural"!
"iii. Fall 2018: Establishment of the Multicultural Center"
"An increase of two million dollars to the current annual operational budget for each cultural center."
"2. We want the construction of a multi-cultural center, a safe space for students from underrepresented groups."
"b. Create a Native American Cultural Center (e.g. Stanford University) with a dean, associate director, graduate recruitment and retention coordinator positions in the Native American Program."
"2. We demand the construction of a free-standing Multicultural Center with its own budget from the University to support social and academic programming by Spring 2017. "
"4. Expansion of Multi Cultural Center and addition of a retention center into The Mashouf Wellness Center."
"Examples of oncampus resources that would benefit the off campus community: Perspectives Committee, the Wellness Center, the Multicultural Center, etc."
"8. SMU will allocate new financial resources towards the expansion of the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs into a Multicultural Center."
"3. We demand for an opportunity to congregate and share our experiences in a new TrotterMulticultural Center located on central campus."
And 30ish more of the same. Good thing you don't need math to build a cultural center.
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Wednesday December 02 2015, @04:19AM
I've had a lot to drink, so I can't reliably mod you up (or apparently reliably aim at supermutant enemies in the Commonwealth), but (given the properties of what I've drunk) I thought I'd say this:
Additional staff to aid in the search processes to hire professors from underrepresented identities in disciplines that reside outside of their racial and sexual/gender identity.
SRSLY, WTF!?!?!?! (Increase the repetition of "?!" quite a few more times. This is trivial with Ruby, but I admit I am not familiar with Python.)
I know a Hispanic identifying woman right fucking here! And she's out of a fucking job because of asshole, gaslighting cocaine snorting mangers! Why don't they fucking ask me? I can get them black women, Hispanic women, you fucking (sorry, the explicitive can only properly express my emotional state) name it. I know two Hispanic/Latino women, one who has demonstrated great hacker capability, and another who has demonstrated potential!
Damn, now I feel dirty, like some kind of pimp.
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Wednesday December 02 2015, @04:37AM
asshole, gaslighting cocaine snorting mangers!
Heh, the sanity loss is always interesting. Let me try again, with restoring a few sanity points. naro̢ͦ̋kath sant̥̥͉ak pargon xel'lotat͂̈҉̮̗h pargơ̂̔n̨̲.
asshole, gaslighting cocaine snorting managers!