Free Republic

Democrats are constantly telling us how great public schools are and how much we must value school teachers. So what happens when a Democrat-controlled city has almost two dozen schools with zero students performing at grade level?FOX 45 News in Baltimore reports:23 Baltimore schools have zero students proficient in math, per state test resultsBaltimore City is facing a devastating reality as the latest round of state test scores are released.Project Baltimore analyzed the results and found a shocking number of Baltimore City schools where not a single student is doing math at grade level. “We’re not living up to our...

"Math is hard, let's go shopping!" When Mattel released a talking Barbie who offered that bit of teenage wisdom, public reaction was so furious they pulled her off the shelves. Mattel is still trying to recover from the PR disaster. I assume they fired the guy who came up with that little gem. Not that it mattered much. I have every confidence he's enjoying a new career, designing math programs for American public schools. What else can I think about programs that encourage children to "shop" for the correct way to multiply? That ask kids what "color" they think math...

Racial and ethnic disparities in advanced math and science skills occur far earlier in the U.S. than previously known. Our new study finds that 13% of white students and 16% of Asian students display advanced math skills by kindergarten. The contrasting percentage for both Black and Hispanic students is 4%. These disparities then continue to occur throughout elementary school. By fifth grade, 13% of white students and 22% of Asian students display advanced math skills. About 2% of Black students and 3% of Hispanic students do so. Similar disparities occur in advanced science skills. What explains these disparities? Factors that...

Quick! Call the diversity police!  For the fourth time in five years the US team placed first in the International Mathematical Olympiad, this year tying for first place with China.  The six U.S. team members also won gold medals for their individual high scores on the Olympiad, known as the world championship mathematics competition for high school students. However, this very dominating winning team does not look like America -- all members are males, 5 Asians and one Caucasian, judging by appearances.   Photo credit: Carnegie-Mellon University Pictured above: 2019 U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad team members from left: Edward Wan, Daniel Zhu, Brandon Wang,...

Lebron James’ I Promise School in Akron, Ohio is facing major backlash from Akron Public School Board members after it was reported that the school hasn’t had one student from its 8th grade class pass a state math test in over three years. Akron Public School board member Valerie McKitrick was shocked by the new revelation and stated “Not one? In three years?” after she was presented with data that showed not one single student in the school’s fall 8th-grade class couldnpass a Ohio stated math proficiency test. Keith Liechty-Clifford who serves as Akron’s district director of school improvement went...

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...

If someone proposes a solution to an "existential problem" that has no chance of success, should we be forced to take the problem seriously? If the climate alarmists truly believe there is a climate emergency, then they should be able to answer the first basic question about "the plan." Are the numbers in the plan even remotely achievable? Remember: based on their screeching, we have only twelve years before we all die from "man-made climate change." To answer that question, let's break part of the plan into the most basic math problem: can we replace 25%, 50%, or 75% of...

Christina Pushaw, Governor Ron DeSantis’s press secretary, is an extremely effective communicator. For example, on Saturday, Pushaw managed to cut through the smog of lies that Democrats use to claim that they’re not teaching Critical Race Theory (“CRT”) in America’s schools. She did this by publishing incredibly foul, race-based math homework that is on the curriculum in Missouri public schools. Every since conservative Americans discovered, mostly thanks to the Zoom classrooms that Fauci’s lockdowns forced on America’s schools, that their children are being taught Critical Race Theory precepts (Blacks are victims; Whites are evil), Democrats have been denying that CRT...

After a year of remote algebra, Diego Fonseca struggled with advanced algebra. Despite a week at George Mason University's Math Boot Camp, the would-be computer science major failed the math placement test to qualify for calculus four times. He didn't know the basics. Across the country, more students are placing into pre-college math, reports AP's Collin Binkley. "At many universities, engineering and biology majors are struggling to grasp fractions and exponents." At George Mason in Northern Virginia, fewer would-be STEM majors are getting into calculus and more are failing, he writes. “We’re talking about college-level pre-calculus and calculus classes, and...

A pro-trans organization is pushing for “trans and non-binary”-inclusive math curriculums that advance gender ideology. The Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) exists to try adding radical gender theory into school policies and curriculums. But the organization is not just focused on health and history classes or policies surrounding sports and bathrooms but is now pushing for “trans and non-binary”-inclusive math curriculums. GLSEN made its case for ideologically motivated math classes in an article on their website called “How Do We Make Math Class More Inclusive of Trans and Non-Binary Identities?” The article claims that “Mathematics educators play an important...

A concerned parent posted a picture of their third grader's common core math homework yesterday. Frustrated, they called the homework "ridiculous." Just how ridiculous? Third graders are now being taught how to multply single digit numbers using six steps. Common Core is the over-complication of simple problems. So, how do you solve 7 times 5? You don't just solve it quickly in your head. You don't count by seven five times. Instead, you are supposed to break five into two smaller numbers. It doesn't explain why you don't break seven down, but students are supposed to instantly know that five...

Few subjects seem less political than math. There is little room for subjective judgment because its truths are universal. No matter what you look like or where you’re from or how you feel about it, two plus two will always equal four, and the area of a circle will always be π r². Math is so objective, in fact, some scientists have theorized that prime numbers could offer the basis of communication with supposed intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos. However, even if aliens know that math has no racial or gender bias, some educators on Earth seem to think...

Laurie Rubel, a professor of math education at New York’s Brooklyn College, does not appear to be fond of the discipline she teaches. In fact, she apparently believes math is inherently racist. She recently tweeted, “the idea that math (or data) is culturally neutral or in any way objective is a MYTH.” In a separate tweet she noted that math “reeks of white supremacist patriarchy” after stating, albeit incoherently, “along with the ‘of course math is neutral because 2 + 2 = 4 trope’ are the related (and creepy) ‘math is pure’ and ‘protect math.’” Appearing drunk on her own...

NEW YORK -- New York City Council Member Inna Vernikov surrendered to police after she was photographed at a pro-Palestinian rally with a gun in her waistband. Vernikov, a licensed gun owner, attended the rally Thursday at Brooklyn College. Police told Vernikov she was not authorized to carry the weapon at a public gathering, even though she is a licensed gun owner. Vernikov's gun was confiscated and her permit was temporarily revoked.

On July 11, the American Jewish establishment tried to prove that it could fight anti-Semitism and be progressive at the same time. It failed. Outside of Congress that day, dozens of American Jewish groups co-sponsored a rally against the rising tide of Jew-hatred in America. The organizers had hoped that tens of thousands would show up for the event, and for good reason. In April 2002, a hundred thousand American Jews from all over the country congregated in Washington on short notice to rally in support of Israel during “Operation Defensive Shield.” And here they were supposed to rally...

In what one professor calls “affirmative action” grading, Brooklyn College wants to “re-educate” instructors whose minority students have lousy grades, The Post has learned. In an eight-point “anti-racist” agenda shared with the school community this month, college president Michelle Anderson said the school had “recently raised funds to offer professional development to faculty in classes with the highest racial disparities in outcomes” and the most grades of D or F or withdrawals.

Brooklyn College is advising New York City Police officers to use bathrooms out of sight from students to avoid possibly offending them. Students said the NYPD “made safe spaces not feel safe.”

Above photo: tweet from Muslim students at my talk making the Islamic State salute in solidarity with savages. It speaks volumes that a talk on “Free Speech” on an American college campus requires scores of police and plainclothes cops. This video is on one of Muslim’s students twitter feeds crowing about attacking one of the attendees who support our work. I spoke tonight at Brooklyn College, if you can still call it that. Every seat was filled — 80% by Muslim students. If this is the future, it is murder. The sneers, the jeers, the laughter — my discussion of...

No Koch Bros wanted at B.C. Brooklyn College, part of the disastrous and dysfunctional City University of New York sinkhole, has a $60 million endowment. A drop in the bucket compared to CUNY’s horrifying $3 billion budget.46% of its wildly inflated budget comes from New York State. New York City taxpayers kick in another 10%.With so much taxpayer money, involuntarily extracted, they just aren’t in need of any dirty Koch Brothers cash. Brooklyn College’s liberal politics are keeping grants and progress from faculty and students, one frustrated CUNY professor told the Observer.The CUNY college has turned down a $10 million...

Critics have called Margalit Fox's new book, The Riddle of the Labyrinth, a paleographic detective procedural. It follows the story of the laborious quest to crack a mysterious script, unearthed in Crete in 1900, known by the sterile-sounding name Linear B. Fox, an obituary writer for The New York Times, is good at bringing the departed to life. In The Riddle of the Labyrinth, she tells the story of Alice Kober, a classics professor at Brooklyn College, who worked alone over decades and discovered the essential grammar of Linear B, only to die in 1950 before she could complete her...