The San Francisco school board, in a rare moment of common sense, voted to reverse a ban put in place 10 years ago on Algebra being taught in the 8th grade.
The asinine policy was implemented in the name of, you guessed it, equity.
It took years of falling test scores to convince the idiots that run the district that maybe reducing educational opportunity is a bad idea.
Via the Washington Free Beacon:
The San Francisco school board voted on Tuesday to start offering eighth-grade algebra again, starting with pilot programs next year. Officials said in a board presentation that their students’ math scores declined since the algebra ban took effect a decade ago and that the racial gap in advanced math classes has not been fixed. Overall, eighth-grade math proficiency in the district has fallen from 51 percent to 40 percent, according to the board. Proficiency among black students fell from 11 percent to 4 percent.
San Francisco eliminated eighth-grade algebra for all students in 2014, enraging parents and students alike—particularly because students who don’t take the course in middle school cannot easily advance to calculus, a requirement of most elite universities for applicants to math and science programs. The district’s reversal comes as a growing number of districts around the country nix honors classes in the name of “equity.” Over the past few years, districts in Michigan, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Seattle, New Jersey, and elsewhere abolished honors courses in subjects such as English, math, and chemistry to promote more equitable outcomes.
It will take San Francisco schools three years to implement algebra into all the city’s middle and K-8 schools. Select schools will experiment with one of three approaches to the course: making it mandatory for all eighth graders, offering it only to those who are ready and interested, or setting it up as a “second” math class that anyone who wishes can take. Students on campuses who aren’t part of the pilot schools but who want to take algebra will have to enroll virtually or take it as a summer class before starting ninth grade.
How can people that dumb run big city school districts?
Better late than never I guess, just feel bad for all the kids who got screwed along the way.
Lets hope this kind of common sense spreads to other woke school boards across the country.
We as a nation cannot afford a generation of ignorant citizens.
