Someone needs to look up ‘substitute variable’.Algebra II doesn’t cause people to do better at all these diverse activities, instead people who can do well in Algebra and have the motivation to try are the people who will do well at other things.
I’d be happy if schools required students to be able to write a paragraph with correct spelling and punctuation.
I think you’re correct. Correlation does not imply causation, and in this case there is a correlation between work ethic and how one does in more advanced classes like Algebra II. That same work ethic also propels a person to go to college, or otherwise make something of themselves.
Exactly right. The only reason for requiring Algebra II in HS would be to create a diploma that means something. That, however, isn’t what this proposal is really about. If it were then we would be tightening everything else and acknowledging that only perhaps 20% of students are “high school” material.
We already have states that require “algebra”, but if you examine what is behind the label, it is really mostly arithmetic. If this new requirement is imposed, something substantially less than Algebra II will be taught under the label of Algebra II so politicians and bureaucrats can swindle the public.
I am willing to wager that a significant majority of college students today couldn’t pass a rigorous Algebra II course (defined as Saxon’s curriculum).
Overall, educvation in the US has become a game of “Let’s Pretend”.