It appears that parents are less positive than administrators are about detracking math.
SF schools’ move to delay algebra shows positive results, district says Jill Tucker
San Francisco Chronicle
January 9, 2019
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The new math policy keeps all students together in math until junior year, when advanced students can then surge ahead by taking a combined Algebra II and precalculus courses and then take calculus during their senior year.
This eliminates the tracking of students into classes based on a higher or lower level of academic ability, which often separates white, Asian and wealthy students from their black, Latino and poor peers.
Most other districts offer an accelerated math course in middle school, combining eighth grade math with Algebra I.
Many parents have balked at the new sequence, saying it punishes students who are ready for more rigorous math concepts while making it harder to reach calculus. Previously, students could take Algebra I in middle school, and then progress through geometry, Algebra II, precalculus and then Advanced Placement calculus in high school.
While more students are taking precalculus now, the enrollment in Advanced Placement calculus courses has declined by nearly 13 percent over the past two years. Enrollment in AP Statistics, which requires only Algebra II as a prerequisite, has surged nearly 50 percent.
“It sends a message to San Francisco families that the district is not interested in students who want to excel,” said parent Rebecca Murray, who has three children in the district in eighth, seventh and second grades, adding she believes the district can offer an accelerated course in middle school and still see the increase in advanced math enrollment for all students. “It doesn’t have to be either/or.”
Parent Maya Keshavan said the new policy has resulted in families bypassing the policy by enrolling their students in expensive online Algebra I courses during middle school or intensive geometry classes during the summer months to ensure they can reach calculus without cramming Algebra II and precalculus into one year.
“This is all dependent on if the parents know what they’re doing or not,” she said. “I’m worried about the kids who are ready and don’t have the resources that other kids do.”
District officials defended the policy, however, saying that universities are increasingly downplaying the idea that students need to take calculus in high school.
“For so long, people have held up this idea that AP Calculus is the gold standard (for college admission),” Lizzy Hull Barnes said, a district math supervisor, adding Stanford and UC Berkeley are among the universities downplaying the need for calculus. “Faster is not better.”
Many university admission offices, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, say a rigorous high school transcript that includes calculus improves the odds of getting in.
“We haven’t seen the effect on college acceptance yet,” Keshavan said. “We’re setting our kids up to be competing against the rest of the kids in California with one hand tied beyond their back.”
