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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Back in the 1950s, high schools taught calculus like any other math topic. No one saw it as accelerated —just part of a solid education. But by the 1990s, U.S. education started getting softer. Now, it's Asian American students leading the charge to remind the country that preparing youth for today’s STEM demands means bringing back general education standards, like learning calculus in high school, just as before. It’s time to ditch the identity-based entitlement mindset and return to the American way of learning math through practice and hard work.

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Now even algebra is considered accelerated. [/quote]

My dad is a STEM PhD who graduated HS in the '70s and his suburban district absolutely didn't offer calc in high school. He went to school with several people who went on to be leading tech entrepeneurs of their time (well before the current crop of tech bros). All of them had to wait until college to take calc. He's still a little baffled that STEM types pretty much have to take calc in high school now.

Not saying our current pathways are bad; I like them. It's just not true, though, that everyone took calc in the 50s. The data shows our expectations in math have been steadily increasing over time until recently when scores started sliding.[/quote]

It's especially difficult to compare with math pathways 50+ years ago, because whole grade skipping was common back in the day.  They might not have offered calculus in highschool, but the super bright kid graduated at age 16 and still took calculus at what would have been their 11th grade year if they hadn't skipped ahead.  Katherine Johnson graduated from high school at age 14.

My high school in the early 90s only offered calculus for 12th grade.  But several of my classmates skipped a grade back in ES.  There was also a program to allow high school kids to take college classes if the class wasn't available at the high school.  So, there was no need for anything beyond 1 year of calc.

A large reason we have so much more math acceleration now is that skipping grades went out of vogue.  The educational powers that be decided that remaining with your age peers and single subject accelerating was better than moving up a grade or two and possibly having social issues.  [/quote]

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