Reply to VADOE adjustments to advanced math track

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It appears that the VA DOE plans implement VMPI under a different name.

It is true there is a law requiring a review of the math SOL every 7 years; 2022 is the year.

Looks like DOE will try to disguise VMPI as the periodic math curriculum review.[/quote]

They plan to have different “pathways” like data science (SOL standards already up for review) instead of calculus. Not sure if they also plan to push more project-based, student-led junk like the VMPI page had.

Don’t think removing math acceleration will be on the table officially. For that keep a hawk eye on E3 here in FCPS. Parents report this program at a few schools is everyone in a clustered local level IV getting “advanced” math, meaning no one is. E3 is FCPS’s plan for advanced math moving forward and parents should be aware of it.[/quote]

Data Science would be a much better track for my kid than Calculus (same would have been true for me, and I took several years of college math)... I hope that pathway/option makes it into the curriculum before they hit Grade 12 in a few years.[/quote]

I am in favor of bringing back alternate pathways - I think, for example, the old consumer math track, which was destroyed after the EVERYONE MUST GO TO COLLEGE push, offered real value and practical skills for people who took it. But the alternate pathways that DOE was talking about didn't look anything like that. In the VMPI presentation I watched, one of the presenters waxed eloquently about how a high school student looking forward to  a nursing or allied health care degree would take a super relevant Data Science class. Relevant to almost no-one in either nursing or allied health. What these students need -- and take formally at many institutions -- is medical math: a course in how to rapidly calculate dosages, IV flow rates, and perform unit conversion, generally through non-approved by VMPI methods, like memorizing multiplication tables.

Anyway, I work in a tangential-to-data-science area and [b]non-calculus data science is mainly going to be a useless collection of buzzwords. [/b]Probability & Statistics would be a much better option for a student reasonably solid in algebra.

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Really? Seems like there is a ton that doesn’t require calculus.

These skills seem more helpful than calculus to anyone who has to manipulate a data set in a professional environment (not STEM):

https://hsdatascience.youcubed.org/curriculum/

https://www.ucladatascienceed.org/introduction-to-data-science-curriculum

“ This curriculum will introduce students to the main ideas in data science through free tools such as Google Sheets, Python, Data Commons and Tableau. Students will learn to be data explorers in project-based units, through which they will develop their understanding of data analysis, sampling, correlation/causation, bias and uncertainty, probability, modeling with data, making and evaluating data-based arguments, the power of data in society, and more! At the end of the course students will have a portfolio of their data science work to showcase their newly developed abilities.”
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Sheesh, they're planning on doing Python's data science modules? Are they making computer science a prereq?[/quote]

I'm sure most kids will having some kind of programming skills by that point, but it doesn't look like it's required.

This particular curriculum uses Colab to guide students through a taste of what Python can do: 
https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1lgAV2IYcMTKIKJ-ziQALO34PXZQiiGz-

Pretty cool. Probably fun than Matlab for most people.  :lol: 
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I read that link as a programmer who can code Python (though I don't day to day). I'm trying to remember being 14 and learning C and wondering if I could use that code to do my own work, and I'm not sure I could have, but it's been a long time.[/quote]

I don't think kids coming out of that class will be proficient in Python. Looks like they are mostly trying to show how tools like Python can be used to manipulate and visual data - along with other tools. It could spark an interest for kids to learn it for real. Remember it's just a HS-level intro class.

I love data and would have enjoyed a class like this - in addition to stats, calculus, etc. 
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