Harvard Instituting Remedial Math Class

[Anonymous]

Either Covid learning loss was worse than we thought (and we know it was really bad) or test optional is a complete failure.

Harvard students don’t know algebra?

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/9/3/new-math-intro-course/

The Harvard Math Department will pilot a new introductory course aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students, according to Harvard’s Director of Introductory Math Brendan A. Kelly.

[Anonymous]

TO idiots. That's what you get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TO idiots. That's what you get.

Ding ding ding! How ridiculous and funny.

[Anonymous]

Wow. I assume this is directed at first gen students, but still seems pretty nuts.

[Anonymous]

but why? I mean, these students are not qualified to be in Harvard STEM majors, you'd think. And if they're studying something in humanities, let them take physics for poets (like I did)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:but why? I mean, these students are not qualified to be in Harvard STEM majors, you'd think. And if they're studying something in humanities, let them take physics for poets (like I did)

The article states that the lack of skills will have a cascading negative effect on the students down the road.


“If the first one doesn’t go well, it can really make these lasting waves in their pathways,” Kelly said. “We want to avoid that. We want to make sure that students are on a path to success starting from their first day.”

[Anonymous]

At Harvard and can't do basic Algebra.

What a f***kg joke of a university.

[Anonymous]

Math M isn't a new course, and isn't remedial. It's functions and introductory calculus, which are college level calculus. This is a section of the same course that meets 5 days instead of 3 so that kids can get more support while taking this college level class.

[Anonymous]

This is why test optional Needs. To. Go

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Math M isn't a new course, and isn't remedial. It's functions and introductory calculus, which are college level calculus. This is a section of the same course that meets 5 days instead of 3 so that kids can get more support while taking this college level class.

"“What we thought was the best thing to do — instead of adding another course before MA — was to add more time and support into MA for students who would need it.”"

Previous commenters might be great at math but lack reading skills - or the willingness to actually read the article before blathering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I assume this is directed at first gen students, but still seems pretty nuts.

why would you assume that?

Many Asian American students are first gen, and they score very high in math, the highest of all groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Math M isn't a new course, and isn't remedial. It's functions and introductory calculus, which are college level calculus. This is a section of the same course that meets 5 days instead of 3 so that kids can get more support while taking this college level class.

"“What we thought was the best thing to do — instead of adding another course before MA — was to add more time and support into MA for students who would need it.”"

Previous commenters might be great at math but lack reading skills - or the willingness to actually read the article before blathering.

dp.. One would expect Harvard caliber students to not need more "time and support" for " functions and introductory calculus". A lot of high performing students take this type of class in HS. If Harvard had not been TO, they could've weeded out people with weak math scores.

[Anonymous]

Half of US high schools don’t offer calculus. I imagine there may be very bright students at Harvard and elsewhere who have had weak learning environments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Math M isn't a new course, and isn't remedial. It's functions and introductory calculus, which are college level calculus. This is a section of the same course that meets 5 days instead of 3 so that kids can get more support while taking this college level class.

"“What we thought was the best thing to do — instead of adding another course before MA — was to add more time and support into MA for students who would need it.”"

Previous commenters might be great at math but lack reading skills - or the willingness to actually read the article before blathering.

The best that can be argued is that the old introductory course was too advanced for a significant subset of students, so they added a new section that provides significantly more support and tutoring (i.e., remedial) FYI, Harvard describes it as “a new introductory course.”


Quote from The Crimson:

He said the Covid-19 pandemic led to gaps in students’ math skills and learning abilities, prompting the need for a new introductory course.

“The last two years, we saw students who were in Math MA and faced a challenge that was unreasonable given the supports we had in the course. So we wanted to think about, ‘How can we create a course that really helps students step up to their aspirations?’” he said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Half of US high schools don’t offer calculus. I imagine there may be very bright students at Harvard and elsewhere who have had weak learning environments.

From the article:

The Harvard Math Department will pilot a new introductory course aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students, according to Harvard’s Director of Introductory Math Brendan A. Kelly.