Screen everybody - some students may be misidentified. And offer Algebra 1 before 8th grade for those students ready for it. It is not a difficult subject and many younger students are ready for it.
You wrote: “For example, the rate of Black students enrolled in advanced math increased from 88% to 92% between the 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 school years.” The wording here is off, and a few other points need correcting.
North Carolina first passed a law saying any student who scored at the highest level on state tests in grades 3–12 would be automatically placed in the most rigorous math course. Elementary schools pushed back because only students officially labeled Academically Gifted could enroll in enriched math, even when other top scorers were just as capable. The law was then adjusted to start at grade 6. Teachers can recommend students as well, and about half of the students who take Algebra I in eighth grade are there because of a teacher recommendation. We don’t know whether minority students with the same scores receive the same rate of recommendations. The accountability system only reports the percentage of level-5 scorers who were placed in the most advanced option.
When the reporting requirement started in 2018–19, the state also changed the cut scores so that far fewer students earned the top level. As a result, high school report cards show that no one did, because the number of top scorers is too small to report. Middle schools don’t report it at all.
So that “88% to 92%” figure refers only to Black students who scored at the top level and then were placed in advanced math. It doesn’t mean 92% of all Black students. And we can’t tell whether this is better or worse than before because the reports don’t include that history.
We also can’t tell whether eighth-grade Algebra I still functions as a gateway. Its importance used to come from the fact that students who took it were the ones who moved into honors math in high school. We don’t know whether enrollment in advanced high school math has gone up, down, or stayed the same, because that isn’t being reported.
To clarify, the percent of black students went up but we don't know if the number of black students went up. And we don't know if the non-level 5 students' access (who benefit greatly from the rigor) are racially and income biased, just as before the legislation.
Asking as someone based in the UK who really does not understand the US system: why not just use test scores? From my perspective it seems extraordinary that parent requests can play a role here.
Is this piece a joke, a send-up, satirical, ironical, an AI hallucination, or a random arrangement of letters and numbers. In any event, it is surely "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
Asian and white families are more involved in their students education. It's that simple.
I had a friend who was a math teacher who said that hispanic families in his community did not support their students taking advanced classes or applying to college.
I have been helping minority families advocate to get their kids access to advanced math. The push-back is unbelievable. And in the schools that I have helped to use their data to identify high scoring overlooked students, who enrolled them- the parents were thrilled. The schools had previously and continuously said what you are saying here as a way to justify limiting the access.
This teacher was doing *everything* he could to get hispanic students in higher maths and to keep them there. Parents intervened. Period. He was in Kansas.
I'm always happy to blame the schools for almost everything. Public schools in America are bad beyond belief so I do not doubt what you are saying. I think it might depend on your school district and/or state.
Screen everybody - some students may be misidentified. And offer Algebra 1 before 8th grade for those students ready for it. It is not a difficult subject and many younger students are ready for it.
You wrote: “For example, the rate of Black students enrolled in advanced math increased from 88% to 92% between the 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 school years.” The wording here is off, and a few other points need correcting.
North Carolina first passed a law saying any student who scored at the highest level on state tests in grades 3–12 would be automatically placed in the most rigorous math course. Elementary schools pushed back because only students officially labeled Academically Gifted could enroll in enriched math, even when other top scorers were just as capable. The law was then adjusted to start at grade 6. Teachers can recommend students as well, and about half of the students who take Algebra I in eighth grade are there because of a teacher recommendation. We don’t know whether minority students with the same scores receive the same rate of recommendations. The accountability system only reports the percentage of level-5 scorers who were placed in the most advanced option.
When the reporting requirement started in 2018–19, the state also changed the cut scores so that far fewer students earned the top level. As a result, high school report cards show that no one did, because the number of top scorers is too small to report. Middle schools don’t report it at all.
So that “88% to 92%” figure refers only to Black students who scored at the top level and then were placed in advanced math. It doesn’t mean 92% of all Black students. And we can’t tell whether this is better or worse than before because the reports don’t include that history.
We also can’t tell whether eighth-grade Algebra I still functions as a gateway. Its importance used to come from the fact that students who took it were the ones who moved into honors math in high school. We don’t know whether enrollment in advanced high school math has gone up, down, or stayed the same, because that isn’t being reported.
To clarify, the percent of black students went up but we don't know if the number of black students went up. And we don't know if the non-level 5 students' access (who benefit greatly from the rigor) are racially and income biased, just as before the legislation.
Asking as someone based in the UK who really does not understand the US system: why not just use test scores? From my perspective it seems extraordinary that parent requests can play a role here.
Is this piece a joke, a send-up, satirical, ironical, an AI hallucination, or a random arrangement of letters and numbers. In any event, it is surely "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
Asian and white families are more involved in their students education. It's that simple.
I had a friend who was a math teacher who said that hispanic families in his community did not support their students taking advanced classes or applying to college.
I have been helping minority families advocate to get their kids access to advanced math. The push-back is unbelievable. And in the schools that I have helped to use their data to identify high scoring overlooked students, who enrolled them- the parents were thrilled. The schools had previously and continuously said what you are saying here as a way to justify limiting the access.
This teacher was doing *everything* he could to get hispanic students in higher maths and to keep them there. Parents intervened. Period. He was in Kansas.
I'm always happy to blame the schools for almost everything. Public schools in America are bad beyond belief so I do not doubt what you are saying. I think it might depend on your school district and/or state.