Reply to Harvard is not alone. UC students Without 8th Grade Math Skills Skyrockets

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[quote=Anonymous]The actual report from UC San Diego was interesting to read. It is a tale of haves and have nots. Unfortunately it really is a case of public schools with significant numbers of poor / first generation students not teaching math well. These students are overrepresented in having to take Math 2 at UCSD. There isn't the same issue at Berkeley and UCLA.

Unfortunately CA just created new math curriculum standards that continues to dumb down math by not emphasizing computational skills. The problem is moronic math EDUCATION professors like Jo Boaler from Stanford Education Department are in charge of creating CA math standards for public schools. Actually math professors in the math department like Brian Conrad, professor of mathematics at Stanford University, found numerous errors in the framework. He analyzed the framework’s citations and documented many instances where the original findings of studies were distorted.

All students, including poor students who can't afford to sign up for supplemental math programs like Kumon, AOPS, RSM, deserve quality math classes.

The actual numbers are:

665 out of 7799 (so 8.5%) of incoming freshman placed into math 2 (level below pre-calculus). 
MATH 2. Introduction to College Mathematics (4)
A highly adaptive course designed to build on students’ strengths while increasing overall mathematical understanding and skill. This multimodality course will focus on several topics of study designed to develop conceptual understanding and mathematical relevance: linear relationships; exponents and polynomials; rational expressions and equations; models of quadratic and polynomial functions and radical equations; exponential and logarithmic functions; and geometry and trigonometry. Workload credit only—not for baccalaureate credit. Must be taken for P/NP grading.

At the same time around half placed higher than math 20A which means they met this pre-requisite (3745 out of 7799 - so 48%):

MATH 20B. Calculus for Science and Engineering (4)
Integral calculus of one variable and its applications, with exponential, logarithmic, hyperbolic, and trigonometric functions. Methods of integration. Infinite series. Polar coordinates in the plane and complex exponentials. (Two units of credits given if taken after MATH 1B/10B or MATH 1C/10C.) Prerequisites: AP Calculus AB score of 4 or 5, or AP Calculus BC score of 3, or MATH 20A with a grade of C– or better, or MATH 10B with a grade of C– or better, or MATH 10C with a grade of C– or better.[/quote]

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