Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Algebra for All Doesn’t Add Up: How the narrative about white supremacism in math results in delusional policy
City Journal ^ | October 7, 2020 | Robert Cherry

Posted on 10/08/2020 5:42:42 AM PDT by karpov

In recent years, education activists have adopted the argument that white supremacism and the misuse of mathematics explain racial inequality in educational attainment. “On many levels, mathematics itself operates as Whiteness,” University of Illinois professor Rochelle Gutierrez has claimed.

In New York City, school officials and the mayor’s office have embraced this narrative. Schools chancellor Richard Carranza linked black and Hispanic students’ mathematics deficiencies to teachers’ implicit bias. Yet at the same time, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s education masterplan foresees offering algebra, a gateway to higher-level math courses, to all eighth-graders by 2022.

Advocacy groups and even some academics contend that if Latino and black students had access to eighth-grade algebra at the same rate students in the highest-performing schools across New York State, “the additional number of course completions . . . would be 34,126 in Algebra I in middle school, [and] 29,570 in Calculus.”

The desire to expose underprivileged students to more rigorous math curricula is noble, but the idea that black and Latino students would be successful at algebra in the eighth grade at the same rate as the most successful school districts is delusional. It ignores the profound deficits of a large share of students in the most impoverished districts. In 2013, 142 elementary schools registered chronic absenteeism rates of at least one-third of their students; only 18 of these schools achieved a Common Core pass rate of at least 20 percent on the math exam. And the absenteeism and exam scores weren’t any better in middle schools.

Pass rates have not improved since then. Indeed, the most recent data show that only 30 percent of black and Latino students in traditional public schools were math-proficient. Thus, a large share of black and Latino students has neither the skills nor the attendance record

(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: New York
KEYWORDS: algebra; bellcurve; education; math; nyc
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last
If algebra for all does not make sense, neither does college for all. Frankly, neither does high school for all.
1 posted on 10/08/2020 5:42:42 AM PDT by karpov
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: karpov

Democrat÷socialist/RINO=Commie


2 posted on 10/08/2020 5:45:01 AM PDT by HighSierra5
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: karpov

Math be racist.


3 posted on 10/08/2020 5:46:03 AM PDT by 2banana (Common ground with islamic terrorists-they want to die for allah and we want to arrange the meeting)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: karpov

If you understand math and the native language, a person can figure out everything else. All you need is ambition and live in a location that has freedom to achieve.

The left is trying to destroy math and our native language. The goal seems to be citizen dependence on the government for survival


4 posted on 10/08/2020 5:54:06 AM PDT by Dutch Boy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: karpov

“All” are not the same. In very broad terms (race), different groups of people have different strengths and weaknesses. They have overlap, there are exceptions, there is variation within groups, and every other cope, there are even some non-biological reasons, but there are very real differences. That is reality. Ideology will not solve that.


5 posted on 10/08/2020 5:54:40 AM PDT by cdcdawg (Biden has dementia.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: karpov
If People of Color can't do Math because of the evil white man, someone explain to me why China and India produce outstanding mathematicians year after year.

The average Chinese or Indian college student is probably way more proficient at Math than the average American college student who fritters away their time studying gender and racial "studies".
 

6 posted on 10/08/2020 5:54:40 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (Guide me, O thou great redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: karpov

This is one of those reasons why I’d stop schooling for kids at the 8th grade. If you can’t handle some basic advanced math or Algebra...you can’t be a carpenter, a HVAC repair guy, a heating specialist, a roofer, or a baker/cook.

We could also cross off about sixty-percent of all college classes or degree programs.


7 posted on 10/08/2020 5:57:44 AM PDT by pepsionice
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2banana

I believe the correct spelling is:

“Math be racis’.”


8 posted on 10/08/2020 5:58:29 AM PDT by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Dutch Boy

That’s possible.

I think it is simply they can’t admit the obvious: intelligence and race have a high correlation.


9 posted on 10/08/2020 5:59:46 AM PDT by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: karpov

The reason there is perceived in equality is inequality. Some just don’t measure up


10 posted on 10/08/2020 6:00:44 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) t Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay My, oh, my, what a wonderful day)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Governor Dinwiddie

explain to me why China and India produce outstanding mathematicians year after year.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Because they are only POC for political purposes, ie: coalition building.

Chinese are Far East Asian
Indians, despite a variety of skin shades, are South East Asian.


11 posted on 10/08/2020 6:01:31 AM PDT by reformedliberal (Make yourself less available.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: karpov
Schools chancellor Richard Carranza linked black and Hispanic students’ mathematics deficiencies to teachers’ implicit bias.

If the school my wife works at is any indication, and I think it is, most school teachers are black or hispanic women...

12 posted on 10/08/2020 6:02:06 AM PDT by jeffc (I'm a Patriot, and the media are our enemy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: karpov

A LOT of people would be happier and have better careers if they were routed to trade schools and apprenticeships.


13 posted on 10/08/2020 6:04:01 AM PDT by Little Ray (Freedom Before Security! (Ironic, huh?))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jeffc

Also, math is not taught correctly. A math problem is a puzzle to be solved. It is wrong to give a student 30 math problems and 10 minutes to get the correct answers...


14 posted on 10/08/2020 6:04:52 AM PDT by jeffc (I'm a Patriot, and the media are our enemy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: pepsionice

I agree. Maybe make highschool optional. Those kids that want knowledge will seek it out. College should be for those true scholars. Very difficult to enter and even more difficult to graduate. Stop the pandering.


15 posted on 10/08/2020 6:08:05 AM PDT by redshawk ( I want my red balloon. ( https://youtu.be/zNLpfEDliV0)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Governor Dinwiddie
Our numerals were invented in India (wrongly called Arabic numerals when all the Arabs did was to transmit them to Europe), so naturally Indians should do better with them. Should we celebrate the fact that we are using numerals created by People of Color or invent a new system to avoid cultural appropriation? Decisions, decisions...

As long as they don't force people who speak a Romance language to do their mathematical calculations using Roman numerals.

16 posted on 10/08/2020 6:08:06 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: karpov

Ok, electricians, plumbers, auto mechanics all need a basic understanding of higher than finite math.

Not everybody can ‘get it’ though,!
I was one of those. I failed junior high school algebra, because i could not ‘see’ the relationships of alphabetic numbering.

However, in the military, once i had a ‘thing’ to put in the equations, i ‘got it’. That is x’s and y’s become ohms, amps, and volts, it was easier.

Also, assets minus liabilities equal profit!


17 posted on 10/08/2020 6:09:40 AM PDT by Terry L Smith
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: karpov

After seven years in the urban, union controlled cesspools masquarading as schools that the Democrats have herded black and Latino kids, they can’t read, write or do basic arithmetic, much less algebra. Funny how the same kids do much better in parochial and private schools.

Sadly the die is cast with these kids by the end of the 5th grade. Either they achieve the foundation basics in math and reading or they are lost. By middle school the hormones and the street dominate them. Drugs, violence and the reality of their circumstances forstalls any further learning or development of academic skills. Algebra? Calculus? Forget about it.


18 posted on 10/08/2020 6:14:24 AM PDT by allendale
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Terry L Smith
A plumber needs to know three things:


19 posted on 10/08/2020 6:14:56 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: karpov
In 2013, 142 elementary schools registered chronic absenteeism rates of at least one-third of their students; only 18 of these schools achieved a Common Core pass rate of at least 20 percent on the math exam. And the absenteeism and exam scores weren’t any better in middle schools.

For the 50th year in a row, the KKK has failed to come up with a more effective way of keeping blacks down than America's public school system.

20 posted on 10/08/2020 6:17:37 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (In 2016 Obama ended America's 220 year tradition of peaceful transfer of power after an election.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson