The president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) may agree in spirit with Hacker, having written

http://www.nctm.org/about/content.aspx?id=28195
Endless Algebra—the Deadly Pathway from High School Mathematics to College Mathematics
by NCTM President J. Michael Shaughnessy
NCTM Summing Up, February 2011

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The NCTM/MAA Mutual Concerns panel presented four concrete, relevant, alternative mathematical transition paths for high schools and colleges to consider. One path emphasizes quantifying uncertainty and analyzing numerical trends. Its mathematical foci include data analysis, combinatorics, probability, and the use of data collection devices, interactive statistical software, and spreadsheet analyses of numerical trends. A second transition path concentrates entirely on the development of students’ statistical thinking, beginning in high school and continuing into the first year of college. Statistical thinking involves understanding the need for data, the importance of data production, the omnipresence of variability, and decision making under uncertainty. This path differs both in purpose and approach from an AP statistics course. A third path recommends building a transition grounded in linear algebra. Linear algebra integrates algebra and geometry through powerful vector methods. It offers an arena in which students can work with important multivariable problems and provides students with general-purpose matrix methods that will serve them well in many fields, including mathematics, science, engineering, computer science, and economics. Finally, a fourth transition path incorporates a suggestion that an alternative to calculus can be found in calculus itself—but a vastly different calculus from the traditional calculus I. This path concentrates on multivariate applications of both calculus and statistics, because today’s application problems rarely involve single-variable calculus or univariate statistics. We live in a multivariate world. Therefore, students’ mathematics experience in preparation for their transition to college should emphasize multivariate functions, partial derivatives, multivariate data sets, and analyzing covariance.

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I wonder where these "alternative mathematical transition paths" have been fleshed out, and whether students who have trouble with the current algebra-to-calculus curriculum will fare better in them.