University System Weighs Gutting Math Standards After Students Keep Failing Algebra

Tennessee Star ^ | 12/13/2022 | Alexa Schwerha

[DFG]

The Kansas Board of Regents is considering stripping specific university math requirements after it was found that a significant percentage of college freshmen fail algebra, NPR affiliate KCUR reported.

The Regents, who oversee the system’s six public universities, are considering implementing the Math Pathways approach which matches students to a math course based on their major instead of mandating algebra for all incoming students. While many universities require that all freshmen pass algebra as a prerequisite for graduation, one in three Kansas students reportedly fail the course, which could delay a student’s graduation.

Daniel Archer, vice president of academic affairs for the Kansas Board of Regents, said that algebra is not always necessary for many students. Only 20 percent of majors require higher-level math beyond algebra, KCUR reported.

“We’re sending the majority of students down the college algebra road, which is really not necessary,” Archer said. “It’s not practical. It’s not really needed. And it’s not relevant for their fields.”

he Math Pathways approach offers students the option of taking alternatives to algebra such as statistics and quantitative reasoning, according to its 2018 brief. Its summary claims that algebra is a “gatekeeper to higher education for students not majoring in a math-heavy field.”

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

I took - and passed - algebra in 8th grade. A college freshman topping out at algebra is a very low bar. If they can’t pass that...they shouldn’t be graduating college.

[Blennos]

Really. How stupid ARE today’s students? In order to get a NYS Regents Diploma in the ‘60s we had to pass three years of math — Algebra, Geometry, and Trig. No way around that.

The current generation seems to be not very bright. Not their fault though. Education system has been dumbed-down considerably.

[chiller]

Nothing I’ve seen portends the end of America as we’ve known it as much as this does.

Carter’s dept. of Education —now 50 years old—has destroyed our education system and the minds it claims to educate.

I don’t see a way out of it, unless DjT or DeSantis abolish the Dept.

It is reported the Japanese have a thriving education system, so maybe there is a smidgeon of hope.

[Bookshelf]

The enrolled student population at University of Kansas, both undergraduate and graduate, is 68.6% White, 8.34% Hispanic or Latino, 5.37% Asian, 5.17% Two or More Races, 4.26% Black or African American, 0.523% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.112% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders.

[Mouton]

Same here albeit I graduated in 63.

This is not a recent phenomenon. Colleges have been having to offer remedial classes for years due to the government underwritten dopes that have been “attending”.

[lump in the melting pot]

Pre-algebra 7th grade, Algebra 8th grade. Mid ‘80’s. What the hell happened to this country?

[Poser]

“ Why would someone need algebra skills to get a gender studies degree?”

To calculate individual reparations for illegal alien, transgendered, African-Americans. /s

[kosciusko51]

Valid points, but the Dept. of Ed. was created in ‘79, making it 43 years old.

[ConservativeInPA]

Gutting standards keeps the gravy train going of all the useless people employed by colleges. I mean useless. They are the ones teaching the diversity inclusion and equity (DIE) majors. They the ones teaching the “studies” majors, the identity politics majors. They require a constant inflow of low caliber students that lack the intellect and skills to make a very simple decision. That decision is what can they study that will give them a meaningful career in which they can repay the mountains of debt they will have after attending college while having a modicum of a standard of living.

No student should gain entry into college that is not prepared to take calculus their first term or had taken calculus in high school. They lack the ability to think. They lack the intellect for advanced learning. It is advanced learning by the way, or it at least it used to be. Colleges are now turning into institutions of remedial learning. That not advanced. It is pathetic. It only allows the ignorant and incapable to be robbed of their financial futures to benefit a false credentialed class to exist and propagate their weak minded leftist drivel. It also takes off the pressure for lazy ass government school teachers from doing their jobs. It lowers the standards for everyone, especially the intellectual deserving.

[Poser]

You spent your life figuring out how to fit things into spaces. You were using algebra without realizing it.

[chiller]

Looking back on my rudimentary math background, I view math, algebra & geometry as introductory problem solving (i.e. thinking) in real life and applied to most everything.

My Illinois state U mysteriously waived my need for math classes and it wasn’t because I was proficient in any of the disciplines. I believe they were short on math teachers...in 1968 !

[ConservativeInPA]

If they can't pass algebra, they won't be able to pass statistics either.

Colleges have long had what I call kiddie stats. The prerequisite is a warm body willing to take on a mountain of debt with a probability significantly lower than 1 to repay that debt. Stats at the college level needs to be calculus based. Colleges should be aiming high. It’s not called lower learning for a reason.

[MayflowerMadam]

I know. We have a math book that was my grandmother’s in elementary school. “Robinson’s Shorter Course Arithmetic”, published 1874. My husband is a Physicist, and he’s gobsmacked.

The first sentence of the “Suggestions To Teachers”section is “the instructor should not only fully understand it, in all its principles and details, but should also clearly perceive what particular faculties of the mind are concerned in its acquisition and use,”

Today’s teachers not only couldn’t do the math, but also couldn’t understand the sentence telling them how to understand the math. LOL!

[T.B. Yoits]

Re: Post 24 Change Example ($1.07 given for an $.82 charge)

I've witnessed cashiers who can't get that one. Too many have to enter $1.07 into the Amount Tendered in order for the register to show the change.

[HangThemHigh]

"Math was invented by White supremacists to confuse social justice warriors."

They seemed confused after failing math. Did it work?

[T.B. Yoits]

The teachers say the students need to try harder to learn the material that the teachers don't even know, and that the parents who weren't taught it need to help them.

Anyone who's taken even one course taught by someone who actually knows the material understands why even good students fail with poor teachers.

Math teachers in particular are very difficult to find, hire, and retain. Worse, you need good math teachers in every grade.

[jpsb]

We did algebra in the 8th grade. If you can pass algebra you do not belong in higher education. Algebra 1 is super easy. Linear algebra is much harder.

[joshua c]

but can they recite the gender alphabet?

[RoosterRedux]

Well, SJW’s now think 2 + 2 = 5 and a man can get pregnant, so...

[No Party Affiliation]

“It’s not really needed. And it’s not relevant for their fields.”

The students who are either too lazy or too stupid to pass basic math courses have been saying this for 50+ years. With the woke idiots in charge now it looks like they have finally gotten some traction.