The collapse of the California mathematics framework: Nutty Stanford professor promotes wokery over actual math

The Stanford Education professor who inspired the elimination of 8^th grade Algebra I in San Francisco public schools (now repealed) and who was the impetus for the equity-based California Mathematics Framework (CMF) has been accused of numerous instances of “reckless disregard for accuracy” in her research supporting these initiatives.

As reported by Susannah Luthi at the Free Beacon:

The anonymous complaint [filed with Stanford’s provost and the dean of research], backed by a California-based group of math-and-science focused professionals, alleges that Professor Jo Boaler—the most prominent influence on California’s K-12 math framework that nudges schools away from accelerated math pathways—has in 52 instances misrepresented supporting research she has cited in her own work in order to support her conclusions.

These instances of “citation misrepresentation” are divided into three groups: Group A: those that were identified by Stanford’s Dr. Brian Conrad, appeared in the CMF and Dr. Boaler’s work; Group B: those that appear in her work but are not in the CMF; Group C: those that appeared in the CMF and appear in her work but not identified by Dr. Conrad.

The 52 appear here, where cited passages are painstakingly compared and analyzed.

Here’s one example (passages omitted):

Firstly, this paper is a study of adults, not students. Participants guessed the numbers of dots in large arrays of dots and then performed arithmetic. There was no brain imaging in this study at all, and it is entirely unclear what the CMF means by “brain communication.” Furthermore, the paper has no claim that numbers are seen as “visual objects”, and it isn’t made clear precisely what such a statement even means. There is no basis…for the CMF to draw conclusions about optimization of mathematical learning and performance, since that is not at all what the paper explores.

Science has been infiltrated by Politics. While it has always influenced Science, the Climate Activist movement changed everything as well as the loss of morals in America.

People list fake publications, people fake data, people fake Statistics and Statistical methods, everything for ‘success’. The new generation believes that this is the way, and so many have got to their goals this way. Like Steroids use by athletes in the 70’s and 80’s, it eliminated the ‘honest’ people from having a chance. You can’t survive unless your dirty too.

Making crazy decisions, that are potentially very harmful to society and the young, based upon fake science and data, is extremely damaging. Let the buyer beware.

First, they want to drop standardized testing in K-12 schools because it shows the inability of teachers to teach.

Second, they want to drop grades in K-12 schools because it shows the unwillingness of students to learn.

Third, the want to drop advanced placement programs and "gifted student" schools because it highlights the groups of students who are not.

Fourth, they want to drop secondary math and science classes from the 9-12 curriculum because it shows how far behind the proficiency curve American students have fallen.

Fifth, they want to drop high achievement awards because the wrong students are winning them.

Sixth, they want to drop the SAT and other college admissions requirement because American students are no longer qualified to attend.

I'm not surprised to find that the academics who recommended all these things have falsified their credentials all along the way.

-PJ

I was never a math major, but I had great teachers who made what appeared to be complex, simple. Later I was teaching GED in English and Spanish. I became quite good at teaching basic math through algebra. I then taught math at several middle schools. (Yes, middle school. Those few years where all the hormones start making kids crazy.) I just loved it. Between my regular classes, and a M-F 2 hour after school tutoring center I also manned, almost every student became competent with equations. I realize that the real math majors might disagree with what I am about to relate, but it worked. Once a student became competent at solving for x (or y, or n) in a simple equation, the rules and methods for solving are applied to more complex equations. One of the many joys was getting students to always return to the method. At first, some students would not believe. But after enough encouragement and practice, they succeeded.

One of the other joys was teaching struggling kids who had not been taught that they too could succeed.

I got good grades in high school.

I started taking night classes in Accounting at age 29.

I got 4.0 in every Accounting class available at my local Community College.

Didn’t have much of a social life-—but was able to leave the TIME CLOCK under someone else’s direction to be self employed at age 40.

Last client retired 2 years ago. I did his books for over 53 years, starting before I took the classes.

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