Reply to Math equity nonsense LCPS

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a high school math teacher, they SHOULD eliminate Algebra in 6th and 7th grade. The course at that level is so watered down that the kids who enter my high school Algebra 2 and up courses are way behind in both Algebra skills and Algebra concepts. One example: They may be able to factor basic quadratic equations where "a" = 1, but have no idea how to do it when the factoring gets a lot more complicated, and have very little idea of the mathematical concepts behind factoring in general, so that they can apply those concepts to solve the more complicated factoring problems. I much prefer my Algebra 2 students to have taken Algebra 1 in 8th at the earliest, or ninth, because they have more mature brains and can usually learn the math faster and the concepts more in depth. I don't have to spend so much time reviewing Algebra 1 concepts that I can't get all the way through the Algebra 2 course, which then means I have to spend too much time reviewing Algebra 2 concepts in Trig/PreCal, etc. [/quote]

I'm working with gifted middle school students, and my own child has been taking Algebra I in 6th. I've looked at every single homework sheet they've done.
It is not true that these students don't know how to factor a quadratic. They had to do endless worksheets (every day about 15-25 homework problems from the textbook), including factoring quadratics using ad-hoc rules with integer coefficients, using the quadratic formula with arbitrary rational a, b, and c.  My criticism of the course (the way the school taught it) was rather that it completely lacked problem solving. Every single homework was straight-up book problems: factor this, solve this.  Not a single problem required multiple steps or the synthesis and combination of concepts. Not a single problem couldn't be solved in 2 minutes or less. Not a single problem required thinking before writing. I am afraid that this wouldn't be different had the course be taught in 8th grade or later.

Also,  I probably think that the current numbers of takers are both too low and too high, and that more rigorous assessment should take place. I think they're too low for 6th graders (I think they were discussed in another thread, it's about 0.1% or so of students in VA but probably should be triple that), but too high for 7th graders (about 10% or so, but probably should be half that.)  We need to accept that the distribution of abilities is not uniform but follows a Gaussian and not everybody is Lake Wobegon. But eliminate access to early math we cannot. We must fix it.
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