Reply to VA math changes - ways to speak out

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I never thought I would say this but I actually support the changes that VA is going to make.

It will almost certainly go through because too many parents are disillusion regarding their kids abilities and their kids never learn the basics of math and this becomes evident in high school.

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What evidence do you have that these changes will actually lead to kids gaining a better understanding of the basics of math? Serious question. [/quote]

OP here,[b] I would support reconsidering how to teach math to non-accelerated students so that they get more of a grounding in statistics and other topics everyone should know for their everyday life.  But my fear is that the changes being proposed would leave people who want to major in STEM fields unprepared. It is not clear to me how getting rid of accelerated math helps non-accelerated students. Instead I would love to see the state develop programs to provide additional support to all students and to give any student who expresses an interest an opportunity to try the accelerated track. [/b]

Personally I am skeptical this will go through because policies with concentrated costs and diffuse benefits are very tough politically (although in this case I would argue that there may not be any diffuse benefits). But if parents don't speak out to elected officials, it could easily go through.[/quote]

+100  I had to roll my eyes multiple times watching their webinar.  They talk a good game about the importance of statistics and the rise of data science (absolutely stats is important!) but higher level math is also important.  My son will be starting college as a data science major and I doubt he'd have as good college outcomes if he didn't have calculus on his HS transcript (both AB and BC plus AP stats and another DE data analysis class).

And, their reasoning that kids shouldn't take calculus in HS because most re-take it in college makes no sense.  College calculus goes at a faster pace and it is really helpful to have been introduced to it in HS if you are continuing on with math for a STEM major. IMO, fine to skip it if it's really the only higher math required for your major (as it was for my business major long ago) or if you really aced it and feel 100% solid on it before going to the next level but anything less than that, you probably should re-take it. That doesn't mean there was no value to taking it in HS. My son with AB/BC is allowed to skip the first calculus class but while BC technically is billed as Calc 1+Calc 2, he's not allowed to skip level 2 since it's a required major class.[/quote]

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