UCI’s quantitative reasoning requirement is given at Requirements for a Bachelor’s Degree < University of California Irvine . Looks like an English major could take courses on the level of AP statistics to fulfill it, although there are other courses that are neither statistics nor the traditional math path to or through calculus that also qualify.
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High school students often do not know what career they will end up in. Students can hate math in high school for a variety of reasons but may find much later that they wish to study in a STEM field. Limiting a student’s prospects too early is most likely to hurt students who may be on the receiving end of bad advice, kids who at 16 may not even realize they might be interested in attending college.
We generally would not cut off two years of English either, even though high school English classes may not always do a great job teaching writing.
This whole situation sounds like yet another episode of the Math Wars; perhaps what is missing from current high school math instruction is a bigger dose of the underpinning logic. To pull from your experience, think of a legal brief as a mathematical proof.
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This is really sad. And it is so hard to get into UCLA for other kids.
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“The soft bigotry of low expectations.”
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But what about all of the kids who aren’t going to college, the ones who are struggling to graduate at all. Did they really have to pass algebra 2?
At our school, you only need to get through geometry. You need 3 credits of math, but they have algebra 1 broken into 2 years - Parts 1 & 2. And it is a HUGE effort to get these kids to pass this. And there are a lot of them at our school. Personally, I wouldn’t mind dropping algebra altogether a standard diploma. I’d rather see those kids have a better handle on general math.
But there should also be a way not to transfer from a CC to a 4 year university without passing algebra 2.
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I think this is part of the concern raised by some professors mentioned in the article. I worry that disproportionate numbers of certain groups are going to be advised or strongly encouraged to take this path. And as we’ve seen with tracking, once out of the pipeline, your chances of getting back in are slim to none.
I have very little confidence that implicit bias will not play a role in which students are pushed to these courses.
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Few high schoolers know what they want. Many have had bad math teachers. The typical matriculating UC frosh changes their major 2-3 times.
Few high school courses teach critical thinking skills, other than math.
Absolutely not, but this thread is about admissions to a major research University.
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In California a student only needs to pass algebra 1 to graduate from high school. Most schools I know of have a remedial four year algebra 1 sequence for such students.
Ok that’s good to know.
Did I miss it? I don’t see where the UC system is changing its math standards. New courses are submitted for UC approval all the time. In this case, it appears that some quant professors feel that a data science course isn’t strong enough to be approved.
I read the CDE proposed framework and the reasoning behind it. Common Core math was adopted in CA in 2013. Since its adoption, some students have skipped 8th grade Common Core math to take Alg 1. There was some analysis on what those students missed by accelerating, and if there was another pathway for students to get to calculus/stats by the end of HS. I also believe that the CDE was looking for ways to incorporate CS and DS into the HS math curriculum.
The following image is from the proposed framework.
Below are snippets from the [CDE FAQ page (Mathematics Framework FAQs - Mathematics Framework (CA Dept of Education)). There is much more detail if you read the entire FAQ.
Why is the Mathematics Framework being revised?
Nationally, California’s mathematics achievement ranks below the national average and, like most other states, experienced declines between 2019 and 2022 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) fourth and eighth grade math assessments. On California’s most recently reported Smarter Balanced assessment, only 33 percent of students met or exceeded math proficiency standards in 2022, and substantial achievement gaps exist, especially for Black, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Latino students. California students’ demonstration of deep mathematical learning on local and state assessments continues to be a concern and a priority for districts. This includes the importance of high levels of mathematics understanding for college and career preparedness.
Does the draft Mathematics Framework provide guidance for a range of students including students identified as high achieving or gifted?
Since the development of the 2013 Mathematics Framework, new research has emerged that can be used to inform local conversations about how to best serve high achieving students. Throughout the chapters, the framework provides guidance about multiple strategies, including and in addition to acceleration, for ensuring that students have the opportunity to reach advanced mathematics courses, such as calculus and statistics, during high school. Additionally, it discusses the conditions research has found to be associated with successful acceleration, including teacher training.
What does the draft Mathematics Framework say about the high school curriculum?
To align with SBE guidelines and the CA CCSSM, the framework affirms two high school pathways—traditional and integrated—and clarifies the autonomy of local schools and districts in designing courses and pathways that best meet the needs of local families. The guidance helps educators to integrate and align math concepts taught at the middle and high school levels, ensure that all high school math pathways are open to all students, and expand high school math course options to encourage more students to go beyond minimum course-taking requirements.
The high school pathway discussion and graphic in chapter 8 of the draft Mathematics Framework more clearly articulate course sequencing and course options, including pathways to pre-calculus and calculus, as well as options for financial literacy, data science, statistics, and discrete math. The pathways figure was updated to clarify that students should be able to choose from more course offerings during their third- and fourth-year math classes and shift from non-STEM to STEM pathways or vice versa.
The draft Mathematics Framework does not eliminate the ability of local educational agencies to develop course pathways that differ from these options. It also provides information about how colleges are considering different mathematics pathways, including the University of California and California State University systems’ Statement of Competencies in Mathematics Expected for Entering College Students. (See Statement of Competencies in Mathematics Expected for Entering College Students
(PDF).) And it includes advice about the specific competencies’ students will likely need to succeed in STEM pathways in college. (See chapter 8 and appendix A.)
What does the draft Mathematics Framework say about access to calculus in high school?
The draft Mathematics Framework includes calculus in the possible high school pathways and also suggests ways to enable more students to get access to calculus. It notes that many high schools currently organize their coursework in a manner that requires eighth grade acceleration in order to reach calculus or other advanced mathematics courses by senior year. While some students succeed with this approach, acceleration has proved a problematic option for other students who could reach higher level math courses but would benefit from a stronger foundation in middle school mathematics.
The draft framework offers evidence about what approaches can support successful acceleration for more students. At the same time, it recognizes that a strong foundation is most important for later success, quoting the University of California’s board of admissions that “strongly urges students not to race to calculus at the cost of full mastery of the earlier math curriculum…. A strong grasp of these ideas is crucial for college coursework in many fields, and students should be sure to take enough time to master the material. Choosing an individually appropriate course of study is far more important than rushing into advanced classes without first solidifying conceptual knowledge.”
Accordingly, the draft framework offers a variety of options for reaching calculus in high school both with and without eighth grade acceleration. Among these, it notes in chapter 8:
One consideration in sequencing mathematics courses is the desire to enable students who would like to reach Calculus by the end of high school to do so. Currently, most high schools require courses in Algebra, Geometry, Algebra II, and Pre-calculus before taking a course in Calculus, or a pathway of Mathematics I, II, III, then Precalculus. This sequence means that students cannot easily reach Calculus in high school unless they have taken a high school algebra course or Mathematics I in middle school.
An alternative to eighth grade acceleration would be to adjust the high school curriculum instead, eliminating redundancies in the content of current courses, so that students do not need four courses before Calculus. As enacted, Algebra II tends to repeat a significant amount of the content of Algebra I, and Precalculus repeats content from Algebra II. While recognizing that some repetition of content has value, further analysis should be conducted to evaluate how high school course pathways may be redesigned to create more streamlined pathways that allow students to take three years of middle school foundations and still reach advanced mathematics courses such as calculus.
Perhaps therein lies the problem, insufficient learning of elementary math. Hence the Math Wars (haven’t seen that can of worms discussed here at CC in a long time).
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This does not make sense, since
Also, the UCLA class schedule says that MATH 1 (precalculus, the lowest level math course on the mainline math sequence at UCLA) has one lecture for up to 76 students, a little over 1% of the incoming frosh.
English remediation appears to be somewhat more common, with about 12 sections of ENGCOMP 2 and 3 sections of ENGCOMP 1 being provisioned (placement testing may require 1 and 2 or just 2, depending on score / grade in the placement test). If those are eventually provisioned for up to 30 students each, then that is still only around 7% of the incoming frosh.
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However, many school districts have higher math requirements than algebra 1 for high school graduation. For example, Los Angeles Unified School District has aligned its course requirements with CSU minimums (which means math through geometry and algebra 2 currently), although it only requires D (rather than C) grades for courses to count toward high school graduation requirements. San Diego and San Francisco school districts also have aligned their high school graduation requirements with CSU and UC minimums.
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Just some general thoughts.
Data Science sounds great. But, why is it a separate class? Shouldn’t it be a part of all math classes?
Most kids have no idea where they will ultimately end up as a career. It’s a balance between kids “wasting” time on certain levels of math and allowing them to use that additional time to take a deep dive into a different subject that really interests them and realizing that “they can do hard things (advanced math)” and once they do, they might love it.
The problem for many kids is a bad teacher for Algebra 1 or 2 will either set them up for failure in higher level classes or completely turn them off from attempting higher level math. At least data science might open a door by keeping kids interested and engaged in math.
15k not 6,400… at least when she was there. There are over 60k people on that campus every day.
And that is the lowest level for an actual course… not for the remediated courses… those are different according to the PhD student. She taught those and they do not count toward any degree program at all.
“Data science” sounds like just an attempt at a cooler name for a high school-level stats class.
Is that required or recommended? Our private school aligns with the local school district and I know for sure only algebra 1 is required to graduate. Foreign language isn’t required to graduate either, though it’s recommended. I would be surprised if LA Unified was getting all students through algebra 2.
UCLAs last freshmen class was 6,400.
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This statement is included in the proposed framework.
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