Harvard Instituting Remedial Math Class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW in my all White HS calculus was not offered.

What? Are you in a state that gets geographic affirmative action?

[Anonymous]

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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.

For the most part it’s because all they do is study.

Actually, they do lot of martial arts (Tae Kwon Do etc.) and soccer and tennis as well.

But all of it is at the insistence of their parents in order to go to an Ivy. So formulaic. It’s like a “plug and chug” personality. Intrinsic motivation is completely absent.

Most people overlooked one fact, Asian kids' parents, lots of them were top students from China, India, Korea, Japan, Singapore as first generation immigrants.
It's unfair to compare their kids with average kids here. Yes, there are smart first generation college Asian kids, but not majority.

This is true. Billions of Asians and only the top students have a chance of coming over here for college. Millions of Indian students are never tested for competency while our country keeps tab on all students by state.

It’s not surprising that many Harvard students don’t have math skills. They don’t need them.

Plus Asians are focused on math and science only. Why don’t we focus on the top schools in Northern and Western Europe. They are similar to ours but do something right to be on top.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote: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.

It's a function of grade inflation period. Someone posted an article from Bethesda magazine earlier that said MCPS had rampant grade inflation and kids had overweighted GPAs of 4.8 and 4.7 but their teachers/tutors said they could not do algebra 1 and lacked foundational algebra skills.

Weighted GPAs are out of control, and they are not college ready as a result. Harvard and others are seeing an over-inflated resume and admitting them based on misleading stats.

agree. everyone is rushing to blame TO policies but I agree it's happening because of inflated GPAs. everyone is getting "bonus" points for stacking up honors and AP classes and teachers are giving As where they should be giving Bs (at best).

Standardized tests counter grade inflation.

Not really. The rich kids with inflated grades pay for test prep classes and game that system.

FCPS once paid for after school prep class for poor/URMs kids, not sure they still do, but made no difference. TJ changed admission policy a few years ago, and increased student number from 480 to 550, after the very first semester, I heard close to 100 students quit, I guess they expected this.

Or maybe they quit because they wanted a more typical American high school experience than trying to keep up with the kids of 1st generation Asians??

Simple, they couldn't handle the vigorous curriculum in TJ, the new policy did nobody good, it's just politics.

[Anonymous]

Math M isn’t new. Incoming freshman take placement tests and can be recommended for Math M based on test performance. Some non-stem kids opt to take it anyway because it has more supports than other maths.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW in my all White HS calculus was not offered.

What? Are you in a state that gets geographic affirmative action?

The PP is probably talking about their all white high school back in 1998. Pretty sure vast majority of even title 1 public high schools offer at least calc AB or if they don’t, there is a school nearby that does and students have access

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:
It’s not surprising that many Harvard students don’t have math skills. They don’t need them.

Plus Asians are focused on math and science only. Why don’t we focus on the top schools in Northern and Western Europe. They are similar to ours but do something right to be on top.

Your attitude in the first sentence explains what is wrong with the education in this country. The course in question that is remedial is a freshman calculus course. 60 years after the space race and 40 years after Stand and Deliver, we're now excusing Harvard students for not having precalculus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW in my all White HS calculus was not offered.

What? Are you in a state that gets geographic affirmative action?

The PP is probably talking about their all white high school back in 1998. Pretty sure vast majority of even title 1 public high schools offer at least calc AB or if they don’t, there is a school nearby that does and students have access

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