The California Mathematics Framework (C.M.F.) is an arguably obscure but extremely consequential document informing the educations of millions of children, from transitional kindergarten to twelfth grade, which is revised every eight years. The C.M.F. doesnt decide what math concepts to teach; that is decided by the common-core standards. Instead, it makes recommendations to public-school teachers about how and when to teach what elements of math.
The United States has been ranked thirty-seventh of seventy-nine industrialized countries in math achievement among fifteen-year-olds. Among the states, California is considerably below average, and sometimes in the lowest quartile, in a number of national assessments of math proficiency. There is also a pronounced achievement gap, with women, minorities, and the poor falling behind. Given that math is a necessary step toward a STEM careerin demand, high-payingthese numbers are more than simply lamentable. So revisiting our approach to teaching math, in California and beyond, is urgent.
The current draft of the C.M.F., which will be voted on by the California State Board of Education in 2023, is intended to make math education more equitable. Chapter 1 (of fourteen) is titled Mathematics for All; Chapter 2 is called Teaching for Equity and Engagement. The goals were chosen through a series of focus groups of teachers and others; then three math-education experts, a mathematician, and a retired math teacher were tasked with developing a research-driven plan for achieving the goals.
The C.M.F. details some arguments against students taking higher-level math courses in middle school. It also suggests that math be de-trackedthat kids not be sorted into higher- and lower-level courses in their early schooling, and certainly not before high school, in the theory that slowing down math education can lead to deeper understanding. (Algebra I is now commonly offered as an option in the eighth grade.) We know were not doing kids any favors cramming high-school-level math courses into middle school, Jo Boaler, one of the writers of the C.M.F. and a professor at Stanfords Graduate School of Education, told me. And students who are not in higher-level math courses might be damaged by the message that theyre not good at math, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Brian Lindaman, a professor at California State University, Chico, who chaired the C.M.F. committee, told me, We let school boards make their own choice, but we wanted to make sure students and parents had the most information about how acceleration has workedand also how it hasnt worked. We wanted to point out the benefits of a classroom of diverse learners, of people at different ability levels, rather than have a group that just struggles all the time.
The C.M.F. also suggested adding a data-science track, so that students could choose to take data science in place of the more familiar sequence of Algebra II, precalculus, and calculus. Data science is often seen as the math of the present and future, and Boaler herself has helped to design a data-science course, through youcubed, a company she co-founded. (Boaler has attracted criticism for the lucrative consulting work she has done for public-school districts. She disputes the characterization of her earnings.) The course is organized around a different set of pedagogical values than most current math classes: project-oriented group work, no tests, and a focus on real-world applications.
When the first draft of the C.M.F. was released for public comment, phrases such as equity and social justice attracted negative attention from right-leaning press. The headline of an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal read California Leftists Try to Cancel Math Class. The C.M.F. has been called woke math.
But more fierce and fine-grained criticism of the C.M.F. cameperhaps surprisinglyfrom people who have done a lot of work promoting diversity and equity in math and other STEM fields. Everything Ive read about this proposal is going to make matters worse, Adrian Mims said, of the initial draft of the C.M.F. Mims is the founder of the Calculus Project, a program that has been remarkably successful at getting more students of color to take and succeed in advanced math courses. Modifying curriculum that way will not bring equity, he said. It will just bring in a lower track. The lower track he refers to is the data-science track, which he argued would not prepare students for a possible future career in data science, let alone in engineering, physics, economics, or computer science. And we all know who ends up in that trackBlack, Hispanic, and low-income students.
Brian Conrad, a professor of mathematics at Stanford, told me that, during the Trump era, he had been avoiding the news, so I had no idea about this campaign to replace Algebra II with data science. He then began to follow movements in California's K-12 math curricula more closely. When he read the nine-hundred-page C.M.F. document, he was concerned. I encountered a lot of assertions that were hard to believe and were justified via citations to other papers. So I read those other papers, Conrad wrote on a Web site he started for the purpose of sharing his findings. (He is not on Twitter.) Conrad is a graduate of public schools; his father was a public-school math teacher. To my astonishment, in essentially all cases, the papers were seriously misrepresented, he wrote.
One relevant large-scale experiment on public-school math education has already happened in California. In 2014, the San Francisco public-school system stopped offering an Algebra I course to eighth graders. The change was intended to emphasize depth in teaching, and to delay separating students into different levels and kinds of math. Everyone would be in the same math class. Except, of course, not everyone: students at private schools still had an accelerated track. (As of 2015, nearly thirty per cent of school children in San Francisco attended private school, one of the highest rates in the nation.) And public-school kids whose parents could pay for outside classes also had that option. I dont know why it seemed like you could solve a problem by widening the privilege gap. What is solved by eliminating content? Maya Keshavan, an engineer and a mother of two, said. I have a son who was old enough to have the old curriculum; then for my daughter I paid for her to take an outside class. Not everyone can do what I did.
In order for typical students to be ready for calculus by their senior year, something that is close to essential for a future STEM major, they would either need to double up on math courses or take a compression course in junior year that combined Algebra II and precalculus. In news releases and in presentations given around the country by the board of the San Francisco Unified School District, leaders touted the success of the program. They have claimed that the repeat rate for Algebra I had dropped from forty per cent to seven per cent. Keshavan filed a request for the data, through the California Public Records Act. She found that the earlier repeat rate was in fact four per cent. (The district maintains the forty-per-cent figure, saying that this figure was based on students repeating Algebra I at any point during high school.) What I think was truly educational malpractice was the compression course, Keshavan said. It made students think they were prepared when they werent. To be eligible for admission to the University of California system, students need to have completed three years of college-preparatory mathematics, and whether compression courses qualify depends on the courses content. A group of professors from Stanford, Berkeley, U.C.L.A., and Harvard, including Nelson and Mims, wrote in a joint letter that STEM degrees are some of the best paths for social mobility and that the compression course was antithetical to responsible preparation.
School-board leaders also claimed that diversity had increased in advanced math courses. One presentation slide showed that the number of Black students passing an advanced math class had increased from eleven per cent to forty-two per centan extraordinary change. But those percentages referred to a shift from three out of twenty-seven students to five out of twelve studentsin the entire San Francisco public-school system. Those numbers, any way you look at them, are awful, and too small to reveal any trend.
Keshavans kids are now both out of high school. Her son is an electrical engineer, and her daughter is a junior in college, majoring in a STEM field, but Keshavan has continued her activism. I dont know why I cant let it go, but its just so wrong, she said. its just so upsetting to me that were putting all these kids at a disadvantageand why? Because some grownups cant admit that they made a mistake. San Franciscos curricular changes remain in place. In fact, the first draft of the C.M.F. cited the statistics from the school-board presentations.
Jelani Nelson, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, is the son of an Ethiopian mother and an African American father. For the past eleven years, he has devoted time and energy to AddisCoder, a free summer program he founded while finishing his Ph.D. at M.I.T., that teaches computer science to high-school students in Ethiopia; he has also launched a program called JamCoders, in Jamaica, and is a co-founder of the David Harold Blackwell Summer Research Institute, which aims to help more Black students pursue Ph.D.s in mathematics. Im extremely worried, he said, that the C.M.F. is implicitly advocating for certain groups of people to be pushed away from rigorous math courses into essentially a lower track, setting back progress in improving diversity in STEM.
Critics of the data-science track, such as Conrad and Nelson, are not opposed to data science as a subject. Conrad said that some of these courses are fine, but he argued that data literacy could be taught in any number of high-school courses, such as biology, political science, or a regular math class. Nelson, while teaching at Harvard, was part of a team tasked with integrating quantitative reasoning with data into the undergraduate curriculum. Among the fields that came to include courses with Q.R.D. were biology, government, economics, and sociology. Recently, both California State University and the University of California system wrote formal letters expressing concerns, following a review of the C.M.F. The California State letter suggested that the data-science pathway could potentially diminish equity.
Here is the original post:
California Students Are Struggling in Math. Will Reforms Make the Problem Worse? - The New Yorker
- Global Data Science Platform Market Report 2020 Industry Trends, Share and Size, Complete Data Analysis across the Region and Globe, Opportunities and... [Last Updated On: November 11th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 11th, 2020]
- Data Science and Machine-Learning Platforms Market Size, Drivers, Potential Growth Opportunities, Competitive Landscape, Trends And Forecast To 2027 -... [Last Updated On: November 11th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 11th, 2020]
- Industrial Access Control Market 2020-28 use of data science in agriculture to maximize yields and efficiency with top key players - TechnoWeekly [Last Updated On: November 11th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 11th, 2020]
- IPG Unveils New-And-Improved Copy For Data: It's Not Your Father's 'Targeting' 11/11/2020 - MediaPost Communications [Last Updated On: November 11th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 11th, 2020]
- Risks and benefits of an AI revolution in medicine - Harvard Gazette [Last Updated On: November 11th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 11th, 2020]
- UTSA to break ground on $90 million School of Data Science and National Security Collaboration Center - Construction Review [Last Updated On: November 11th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 11th, 2020]
- Addressing the skills shortage in data science and analytics - IT-Online [Last Updated On: November 11th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 11th, 2020]
- Data Science Platform Market Research Growth by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast Analysis to 2026 - Eurowire [Last Updated On: November 11th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 11th, 2020]
- 2020 AI and Data Science in Retail Industry Ongoing Market Situation with Manufacturing Opportunities: Amazon Web Services, Baidu Inc., BloomReach... [Last Updated On: November 11th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 11th, 2020]
- Endowed Chair of Data Science job with Baylor University | 299439 - The Chronicle of Higher Education [Last Updated On: November 11th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 11th, 2020]
- Data scientists gather 'chaos into something organized' - University of Miami [Last Updated On: November 11th, 2020] [Originally Added On: November 11th, 2020]
- AI Update: Provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act Signal the Importance of AI to American Competitiveness - Lexology [Last Updated On: January 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 12th, 2021]
- Healthcare Innovations: Predictions for 2021 Based on the Viewpoints of Analytics Thought Leaders and Industry Experts | Quantzig - Business Wire [Last Updated On: January 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 12th, 2021]
- Poor data flows hampered governments Covid-19 response, says the Science and Technology Committee - ComputerWeekly.com [Last Updated On: January 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 12th, 2021]
- Ilia Dub and Jasper Yip join Oliver Wyman's Asia partnership - Consultancy.asia [Last Updated On: January 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 12th, 2021]
- Save 98% off the Complete Excel, VBA, and Data Science Certification Training Bundle - Neowin [Last Updated On: January 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 12th, 2021]
- Data Science for Social Good Programme helps Ofsted and World Bank - India Education Diary [Last Updated On: January 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 12th, 2021]
- Associate Professor of Fisheries Oceanography named a Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region (CINAR) Fellow - UMass Dartmouth [Last Updated On: January 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 12th, 2021]
- Rapid Insight To Host Free Webinar, Building on Data: From Raw Piles to Data Science - PR Web [Last Updated On: January 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 12th, 2021]
- This Is the Best Place to Buy Groceries, New Data Finds | Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That [Last Updated On: January 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 12th, 2021]
- Which Technology Jobs Will Require AI and Machine Learning Skills? - Dice Insights [Last Updated On: January 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 12th, 2021]
- Companies hiring data scientists in NYC and how much they pay - Business Insider [Last Updated On: January 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 12th, 2021]
- Calling all rock stars: hire the right data scientist talent for your business - IDG Connect [Last Updated On: January 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 12th, 2021]
- How Professors Can Use AI to Improve Their Teaching In Real Time - EdSurge [Last Updated On: January 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 12th, 2021]
- BCG GAMMA, in Collaboration with Scikit-Learn, Launches FACET, Its New Open-Source Library for Human-Explainable Artificial Intelligence - PRNewswire [Last Updated On: January 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 12th, 2021]
- Data Science Platform Market Insights, Industry Outlook, Growing Trends and Demands 2020 to 2025 The Courier - The Courier [Last Updated On: January 31st, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2021]
- UBIX and ORS GROUP announce partnership to democratize advanced analytics and AI for small and midmarket organizations - PR Web [Last Updated On: January 31st, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2021]
- Praxis Business School is launching its Post Graduate Program in Data Engineering in association with Knowledge Partners - Genpact and LatentView... [Last Updated On: January 31st, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2021]
- What's So Trendy about Knowledge Management Solutions Market That Everyone Went Crazy over It? | Bloomfire, CSC (American Productivity & Quality... [Last Updated On: January 31st, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2021]
- Want to work in data? Here are 6 skills you'll need Just now - Siliconrepublic.com [Last Updated On: January 31st, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2021]
- Data, AI and babies - BusinessLine [Last Updated On: January 31st, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2021]
- Here's how much Amazon pays its Boston-based employees - Business Insider [Last Updated On: January 31st, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2021]
- Datavant and Kythera Increase the Value Of Healthcare Data Through Expanded Data Science Platform Partnership - GlobeNewswire [Last Updated On: January 31st, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2021]
- O'Reilly Analysis Unveils Python's Growing Demand as Searches for Data Science, Cloud, and ITOps Topics Accelerate - Business Wire [Last Updated On: January 31st, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2021]
- Book Review: Hands-On Exploratory Data Analysis with Python - insideBIGDATA [Last Updated On: January 31st, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2021]
- The 12 Best R Courses and Online Training to Consider for 2021 - Solutions Review [Last Updated On: January 31st, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2021]
- Software AG's TrendMiner 2021.R1 Release Puts Data Science in the Hands of Operational Experts - Yahoo Finance [Last Updated On: January 31st, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2021]
- The chief data scientist: Who they are and what they do - Siliconrepublic.com [Last Updated On: January 31st, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2021]
- Berkeley's data science leader dedicated to advancing diversity in computing - UC Berkeley [Last Updated On: January 31st, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2021]
- Awful Earnings Aside, the Dip in Alteryx Stock Is Worth Buying - InvestorPlace [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2021]
- Why Artificial Intelligence May Not Offer The Business Value You Think - CMSWire [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2021]
- Getting Prices Right in 2021 - Progressive Grocer [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2021]
- Labelbox raises $40 million for its data labeling and annotation tools - VentureBeat [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2021]
- How researchers are using data science to map wage theft - SmartCompany.com.au [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2021]
- Ready to start coding? What you need to know about Python - TechRepublic [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2021]
- Women changing the face of science in the Middle East and North Africa - The Jerusalem Post [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2021]
- Mapping wage theft with data science - The Mandarin [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2021]
- Data Science Platform Market 2021 Analysis Report with Highest CAGR and Major Players like || Dataiku, Bridgei2i Analytics, Feature Labs and More KSU... [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2021]
- Data Science Impacting the Pharmaceutical Industry, 2020 Report: Focus on Clinical Trials - Data Science-driven Patient Selection & FDA... [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2021]
- App Annie Sets New Bar for Mobile Analytics with Data Science Innovations - PRNewswire [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2021]
- Data Science and Analytics Market 2021 to Showing Impressive Growth by 2028 | Industry Trends, Share, Size, Top Key Players Analysis and Forecast... [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2021]
- How Can We Fix the Data Science Talent Shortage? Machine Learning Times - The Predictive Analytics Times [Last Updated On: February 14th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 14th, 2021]
- Opinion: How to secure the best tech talent | Human Capital - Business Chief [Last Updated On: February 14th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 14th, 2021]
- Following the COVID science: what the data say about the vaccine, social gatherings and travel - Chicago Sun-Times [Last Updated On: February 14th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 14th, 2021]
- Automated Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms Market Technological Growth and Precise Outlook 2021- Microsoft, MathWorks, SAS, Databricks,... [Last Updated On: February 14th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 14th, 2021]
- 9 investors discuss hurdles, opportunities and the impact of cloud vendors in enterprise data lakes - TechCrunch [Last Updated On: February 14th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 14th, 2021]
- Rapid Insight to Present at Data Science Salon's Healthcare, Finance, and Technology Virtual Event - PR Web [Last Updated On: February 14th, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 14th, 2021]
- Aunalytics Acquires Naveego to Expand Capabilities of its End-to-End Cloud-Native Data Platform to Enable True Digital Transformation for Customers -... [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2021]
- Tech Careers: In-demand Courses to watch out for a Lucrative Future - Big Easy Magazine [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2021]
- Willis Towers Watson enhances its human capital data science capabilities globally with the addition of the Jobable team - GlobeNewswire [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2021]
- Global Data Science Platform Market 2021 Industry Insights, Drivers, Top Trends, Global Analysis And Forecast to 2027 KSU | The Sentinel Newspaper -... [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2021]
- A Comprehensive Guide to Scikit-Learn - Built In [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2021]
- Industry VoicesBuilding ethical algorithms to confront biases: Lessons from Aotearoa New Zealand - FierceHealthcare [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2021]
- How Intel Employees Volunteered Their Data Science Expertise To Help Costa Rica Save Lives During the Pandemic - CSRwire.com [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2021]
- Learn About Innovations in Data Science and Analytic Automation on an Upcoming Episode of the Advancements Series - Yahoo Finance [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2021]
- Symposium aimed at leveraging the power of data science for promoting diversity - Penn State News [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2021]
- Rochester to advance research in biological imaging through new grant - University of Rochester [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2021]
- SoftBank Joins Initiative to Train Diverse Talent in Data Science and AI - Entrepreneur [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2021]
- Participating in SoftBank/ Correlation One Initiative - Miami - City of Miami [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2021]
- Increasing Access to Care with the Help of Big Data | Research Blog - Duke Today [Last Updated On: February 22nd, 2021] [Originally Added On: February 22nd, 2021]
- Heres how Data Science & Business Analytics expertise can put you on the career expressway - Times of India [Last Updated On: March 14th, 2021] [Originally Added On: March 14th, 2021]
- Yelp data shows almost half a million new businesses opened during the pandemic - CNBC [Last Updated On: March 14th, 2021] [Originally Added On: March 14th, 2021]
- Postdoctoral Position in Transient and Multi-messenger Astronomy Data Science in Greenbelt, MD for University of MD Baltimore County/CRESST II -... [Last Updated On: March 14th, 2021] [Originally Added On: March 14th, 2021]
- DefinedCrowd CEO Daniela Braga on the future of AI, training data, and women in tech - GeekWire [Last Updated On: March 14th, 2021] [Originally Added On: March 14th, 2021]
- Gartner: AI and data science to drive investment decisions rather than "gut feel" by mid-decade - TechRepublic [Last Updated On: March 14th, 2021] [Originally Added On: March 14th, 2021]
- Jupyter has revolutionized data science, and it started with a chance meeting between two students - TechRepublic [Last Updated On: March 14th, 2021] [Originally Added On: March 14th, 2021]
- Working at the intersection of data science and public policy | Penn Today - Penn Today [Last Updated On: March 14th, 2021] [Originally Added On: March 14th, 2021]
- The Future of AI: Careers in Machine Learning - Southern New Hampshire University [Last Updated On: April 4th, 2021] [Originally Added On: April 4th, 2021]
- SMU meets the opportunities of the data-driven world with cutting-edge research and data science programs - The Dallas Morning News [Last Updated On: April 4th, 2021] [Originally Added On: April 4th, 2021]
- Data, Science, and Journalism in the Age of COVID - Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting [Last Updated On: April 4th, 2021] [Originally Added On: April 4th, 2021]