Eulogy for mathematics in ‘woke’ California

[D J C]

 

Numbers are our universal language — gifts from our ancestors’ clay tablets and parchments.

 

Mathematics is the symbolic explanation of the world we live in and the order to the chaos of the cosmos.

 

From our early study of the mysterious stars to our later exploits in space — launching rockets, satellites and even putting man on the moon — math has been and is still today humanity’s greatest tool.

 

But California education officials don’t care.

 

They believe that learning math actually perpetuates inequity in our schools. That’s why they proposed a mathematics curriculum framework under which math will no longer be an objective academic discipline, but a tool for calling out systemic racism.

 

California’s Instructional Quality Commission decided to move forward with the guideline last Wednesday. The framework is expected to go before the state Board of Education later this year.

 

Students who are good at math, and minorities in particular, will pay the heaviest price. Under the proposed recommendations, students would be grouped together in the same math classes from middle school through their second year of high school regardless of their mathematics abilities. This will deprive students who are gifted at math the opportunity to move at a quicker pace and take more advanced classes.

 

Currently, students are sorted into different math tracks based on their performance. Some students pass calculus by their senior year of high school, or even take more advanced classes at the local community college. Others might not go beyond algebra.

 

Not allowing tracking in mathematics will keep many students from studying advanced mathematics, leaving them less competitive candidates for universities in future.

 

The framework as initially proposed included a document called “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction,” which was ordered removed from the proposed framework by the Instructional Quality Commission on Wednesday.

 

According to the document, the approach to education whereby “students have to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and if they fail it is their fault” is wrong because it “does not give room for the systemic reasons students fail.”

 

Based on this definition, numerical mistakes are not seen as just mistakes that can be improved on, but as an effect of racism. Anyone can misplace a number or forget a formula because of other factors, including bad teaching practices. However, the document heavily limits the ability of institutions and instructors to explore those factors individually, because they have to look at it through the social justice lens.

 

The document goes on about “instructional coaches” who have “the potential to scale their impact to a number of classrooms and students in order to dismantle the culture of white supremacy that exists within the math classroom.”

 

In other words, math teachers must not simply grade students based on their final answers, but must have political considerations, too, defeating the purpose of mathematics and upending how mathematics education works.

 

Studies show that students do better when grouped with others who are progressing in their studies at the same pace. A 2009 Fordham Institute study of Massachusetts middle schools discovered institutions with more tracks have significantly more students climbing the ladders of achievements in mathematics than failing.

 

Additionally, the proposed framework is based on a fallacious premise that minority children are automatically disadvantaged in mathematics. And for many immigrant students in particular, according to research by Gianna Claudia Giannelli and Chiari Rapallini published in the journal Economics of Education Review, mathematical skills are more portable than language skills.

 

Math is not only important to economic development, it is an integration tool for immigrant students in both school and society. Taking it away will not only harm California’s education quality, but will have severe socioeconomic consequences in the long run.

 

I am an Iranian American. There are children in my community who moved to California with their families with high hopes of achieving things that they couldn’t in Iran due to political and economic crises. Few of them speak English, and most have little to no knowledge of American history and literature. So initially, the only thing that allows them to compete in their classroom is mathematics.

 

Making math about social justice won’t help Iranian Americans succeed, and it won’t help other minorities either.
If California education leaders are really concerned about closing the inequality of learning outcomes in education, they should focus on improving English language classes, not gutting math programs.

 

Besides, math is one of the few subjects that all nations have collaborated on for thousands of years. We might never agree on the ideology, government system, or genre of music, but we all agree that 2+2=4. Students interested in exploring issues related to social justice should have the chance to pursue them voluntarily, not forcefully.

 

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