“Closing those racial and ethnic gaps in advanced math coursetaking was a central stated goal of this reform. The percentage of Black students taking any AP math course didn’t increase significantly, and the percentage of Latino students taking any AP math course increased by just one percentage point. There was also a districtwide increase in the number of students taking both AP Statistics and the district’s probability and statistics course.īut large racial gaps in the percentages of students taking Advanced Placement math courses remained. The largest gains came from Black students. “It was really the sense that outside commentators and the district weren’t fundamentally agreeing about what actually happened that motivated ,” said Thomas Dee, a professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education and one of the paper’s authors.ĭee and his colleagues found that, after the policy went into effect, more students in the district took precalculus, typically offered in 11th grade. Critics of the district’s policy change claimed that it was selectively presenting data. In early data reports, the district claimed that the program was succeeding, improving access for all kids-including Black and Latino students-to advanced courses. And second, to avoid the early sorting of students into high and low math tracks, a practice that disproportionately disadvantaged Black and Latino students and made it harder for them to access advanced courses down the line. S y stem leaders had two main goals with the plan: First, to give all students a more solid foundation in 8th grade math, with the aim of better preparing them to succeed in Algebra 1 and beyond. Its solution: Have all students take Algebra 1-the foundational course of high school math-in 9th grade. The district, which shifted to the new course sequence in 2014, was responding to high Algebra 1 failure rates and big racial gaps in the percentages of students progressing to higher-level math-AP Calculus and AP Statistics in particular. Gaps before this policy were very large.” A history of San Francisco’s math reforms “Eighth grade algebra has its own tradeoffs. “I’m sure some people who read this study will call for a return to 8th grade algebra,” she said.īut that’s not the only option the district has going forward, she said. Ultimately, the researchers said, district will need to continue to examine and address the root causes of these persistent inequities, which could lie in differences in course availability and guidance from educators, said Sarah Novicoff, a PhD student in educational policy at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, and an author on the paper. It doesn’t offer a value judgment of whether the reform was beneficial or not. They always eat the bigger number.The study is descriptive, not evaluative.
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