Anonymous
Post 05/05/2026 21:23     Subject: She passed high school math with A’s and B’s. In college, she had to start over.
Anonymous wrote:Because otherwise white people would ask how many Asians would be enough? 50%? 100%?

When 100% of people receiving a state-sponsored benefit come from a visible minority that makes up under 20% of the state population, you should probably anticipate political difficulties.
Anonymous
Post 05/05/2026 21:15     Subject: She passed high school math with A’s and B’s. In college, she had to start over.
Because otherwise white people would ask how many Asians would be enough? 50%? 100%?
Anonymous
Post 05/05/2026 21:09     Subject: She passed high school math with A’s and B’s. In college, she had to start over.
Anonymous wrote:But thanks to her high school's goal of making it easier on students, many of them were accepted to college who might not otherwise have been able to.

It's not an easy decision to make on the part of public schools, actually. You don't want to close doors for students, knowing that many of them won't need calculus in their adult life, and that studies have shown that upward mobility is tied to a college degree. On the other hand, you don't want to encourage lack of accountability or lack of academic rigor.

High schools can't win. They're going to be criticized no matter what.

No, their kids would have been accepted to college no matter what. Most might now have gotten in to a highly selective UC, but that's not a bad thing. The CSUs are better for teaching, anyways.
Anonymous
Post 05/05/2026 21:09     Subject: She passed high school math with A’s and B’s. In college, she had to start over.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This is directly related to the earlier post about top tier privates. The reason "middling" kids get in to top colleges from these schools is that colleges know that they are prepared. Many public schools are a different story.


Tell that to this area's top publics, which teach math beyond AP Calc BC. My 10th grader in Montgomery County Public schools is going into multivariable calculus next year. No private school in the DC region teaches that.

Maybe you should accept that decent universities know a bit more about the rigor in private and public high schools than you do.



your defensiveness is telling. I said "many" not "all." Clearly your child's public school is an exception and clearly many public schools have a wide range of kids, many of whom learn what they need to learn for college and many of whom do not.
Anonymous
Post 05/05/2026 21:07     Subject: She passed high school math with A’s and B’s. In college, she had to start over.
Whatever policy UCSD is following is doing more harm than good. There are over 120,000 seniors who graduate high school in California every year. It is kind of sad that the UC's can't fill their freshmen class with students who can do basic math. They have free community college. Why aren't the students who need remedial help attending one of those?
Anonymous
Post 05/05/2026 21:06     Subject: She passed high school math with A’s and B’s. In college, she had to start over.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I don’t actually think retakes are the problem. Khan Academy, for example, offers infinite retakes. The problem is that many schools never tell students that the goal is mastery. They do not understand that they need to accumulate knowledge and skills. I’m sure they’re capable of it. I’m sure every one of them has some huge store of facts about their favorite show or artist, and has learned a dozen tricks from TikTok makeup tutorials. They just don’t understand they’re also supposed to accumulate the information and skills that they encounter in school.


I don't think just telling the students the goal is mastery is going to solve the problem.


It would be better than not telling them, which is the current approach.
Anonymous
Post 05/05/2026 21:02     Subject: She passed high school math with A’s and B’s. In college, she had to start over.
Anonymous wrote:This is directly related to the earlier post about top tier privates. The reason "middling" kids get in to top colleges from these schools is that colleges know that they are prepared. Many public schools are a different story.


Tell that to this area's top publics, which teach math beyond AP Calc BC. My 10th grader in Montgomery County Public schools is going into multivariable calculus next year. No private school in the DC region teaches that.

Maybe you should accept that decent universities know a bit more about the rigor in private and public high schools than you do.

Anonymous
Post 05/05/2026 21:01     Subject: She passed high school math with A’s and B’s. In college, she had to start over.
Anonymous wrote:I don’t actually think retakes are the problem. Khan Academy, for example, offers infinite retakes. The problem is that many schools never tell students that the goal is mastery. They do not understand that they need to accumulate knowledge and skills. I’m sure they’re capable of it. I’m sure every one of them has some huge store of facts about their favorite show or artist, and has learned a dozen tricks from TikTok makeup tutorials. They just don’t understand they’re also supposed to accumulate the information and skills that they encounter in school.


I don't think just telling the students the goal is mastery is going to solve the problem.
Anonymous
Post 05/05/2026 20:55     Subject: She passed high school math with A’s and B’s. In college, she had to start over.
San Francisco Unified School District removed Algebra 1 from all public middle schools (8th grade) starting in 2014 and until 2026. The policy was framed as an equity initiative to reduce racial disparities.

One party does not want to teach Algebra and the other party does not want to teach evolution. Nut jobs are running the show.
Anonymous
Post 05/05/2026 20:52     Subject: She passed high school math with A’s and B’s. In college, she had to start over.
I don’t actually think retakes are the problem. Khan Academy, for example, offers infinite retakes. The problem is that many schools never tell students that the goal is mastery. They do not understand that they need to accumulate knowledge and skills. I’m sure they’re capable of it. I’m sure every one of them has some huge store of facts about their favorite show or artist, and has learned a dozen tricks from TikTok makeup tutorials. They just don’t understand they’re also supposed to accumulate the information and skills that they encounter in school.
Anonymous
Post 05/05/2026 20:47     Subject: She passed high school math with A’s and B’s. In college, she had to start over.
The reputational hit to the UC's will be generational.

UCSD really admitted students who could not do middle school math? I understand that it is not the most prestigious college in the UC system but that it is appalling.



Anonymous
Post 05/05/2026 20:43     Subject: She passed high school math with A’s and B’s. In college, she had to start over.
But thanks to her high school's goal of making it easier on students, many of them were accepted to college who might not otherwise have been able to.

It's not an easy decision to make on the part of public schools, actually. You don't want to close doors for students, knowing that many of them won't need calculus in their adult life, and that studies have shown that upward mobility is tied to a college degree. On the other hand, you don't want to encourage lack of accountability or lack of academic rigor.

High schools can't win. They're going to be criticized no matter what.
Anonymous
Post 05/05/2026 20:43     Subject: She passed high school math with A’s and B’s. In college, she had to start over.
This is directly related to the earlier post about top tier privates. The reason "middling" kids get in to top colleges from these schools is that colleges know that they are prepared. Many public schools are a different story.
Anonymous
Post 05/05/2026 20:41     Subject: She passed high school math with A’s and B’s. In college, she had to start over.
“ I’m very involved on the UCSD social media communities like Reddit, Instagram, and”

Instead of spending time on social media.. go to khan academy and learn math
Anonymous
Post 05/05/2026 20:34     Subject: She passed high school math with A’s and B’s. In college, she had to start over.
A consequence of grade inflation and test optional. I wonder how this helps disadvantaged students if they get admission but are unable to keep up or need to change to easier majors? Shouldn’t schools do a better job of teaching and providing resources for these students?

https://www.chalkbeat.org/2026/05/05/ucsd-student-says-high-school-math-grade-inflation-hurt-college-readiness/

“ I usually passed with A’s and B’s, but I feel like a lot of the information never really stuck with me, just because we were granted so many opportunities to redo exams and homework. It felt like as long as you retake the exam and get 100% it doesn’t matter if you really know what you’re doing or not.”