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Is math education racist? Debate rages over changes to how US teaches the subject
Erin Richards, Emily Bloch, Gary Stern and Christine Fernando
Tue, December 7, 2021, 11:42 AM·13 min read
Azure Garrett, a fourth-grade teacher at Leadership Prep Canarsie, a charter school in Brooklyn, New York, works with student Amanda Oliver on Oct. 28, 2021.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Algebra classes taught by Nadine Ebri look different than the ones you probably took in school.
Students practice equations through singing, dancing and drawing. Activities are sculpted around their hobbies and interests: anime, gaming, Minecraft. Problem-solving is a team sport, rather than an individual sprint to the right answer.
Ebri, a math teacher and tech specialist for Duval County Schools in Florida, is using new techniques designed to promote equity. If kids of color, girls and low-income students engage, they'll be more likely to pursue high-level math classes, the argument goes. That can open doors to competitive colleges and lucrative careers.
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After Ebri switched to emphasizing real-world problems and collaboration, her students, most of whom are Black, improved their scores on Florida's math exam in 2020-21 – even with 1 in 3 learning from home.
Teacher Nadine Ebri stands in the Minecraft Lab at Springfield Middle School in Jacksonville, Florida, last week. Ebri has taught culturally relevant math and science lessons and encourages using the game Minecraft to engage students.
But other, bolder recommendations to make math more inclusive are blowing up the world of mathematics education. Schools are collapsing math "tracks" to put kids of all abilities in the same classes and adding data science courses that carry the same prestige as calculus, long seen as a gateway to a career in STEM fields – and elite colleges.
Another heated issue: the extent to which math education should include real-world problems involving racial and social inequities. Fairly or not, that debate has landed in the murky soup of "critical race theory" digressions.
The changes have pitted mathematicians and math educators against each other and sparked criticism from affluent parents upset by the elimination of gifted tracks. They've caused upheaval in one state, California, as professors, parents and teachers spar over proposed changes to the state's K-12 math framework.
"We're not changing or lowering the standards. We're outlining how inequitable the teaching of math is right now," said Jo Boaler, a Stanford University math education professor at the forefront of the changes.
Jo Boaler, a math education professor at Stanford University, teaches a middle school student during the university's "Youcubed" math summer camp in 2015.
Opponents say the new movement effectively dumbs down math education.
Lower-achieving students often have deficits that begin in the early grades, and that's where the focus and energy should go, says Wayne Bishop, a mathematics professor at California State University, Los Angeles.
Increasing hands-on projects can move more children up the pipeline, he says. But that doesn't mean students are well-prepared.
"The result is that more people are admitted to college but fewer are prepared for a hard science or engineering college regimen," Bishop said.
Yahoo is part of the Yahoo family of brands
Is math education racist? Debate rages over changes to how US teaches the subject
Erin Richards, Emily Bloch, Gary Stern and Christine Fernando
Tue, December 7, 2021, 11:42 AM·13 min read
Azure Garrett, a fourth-grade teacher at Leadership Prep Canarsie, a charter school in Brooklyn, New York, works with student Amanda Oliver on Oct. 28, 2021.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Algebra classes taught by Nadine Ebri look different than the ones you probably took in school.
Students practice equations through singing, dancing and drawing. Activities are sculpted around their hobbies and interests: anime, gaming, Minecraft. Problem-solving is a team sport, rather than an individual sprint to the right answer.
Ebri, a math teacher and tech specialist for Duval County Schools in Florida, is using new techniques designed to promote equity. If kids of color, girls and low-income students engage, they'll be more likely to pursue high-level math classes, the argument goes. That can open doors to competitive colleges and lucrative careers.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
After Ebri switched to emphasizing real-world problems and collaboration, her students, most of whom are Black, improved their scores on Florida's math exam in 2020-21 – even with 1 in 3 learning from home.
Teacher Nadine Ebri stands in the Minecraft Lab at Springfield Middle School in Jacksonville, Florida, last week. Ebri has taught culturally relevant math and science lessons and encourages using the game Minecraft to engage students.
But other, bolder recommendations to make math more inclusive are blowing up the world of mathematics education. Schools are collapsing math "tracks" to put kids of all abilities in the same classes and adding data science courses that carry the same prestige as calculus, long seen as a gateway to a career in STEM fields – and elite colleges.
Another heated issue: the extent to which math education should include real-world problems involving racial and social inequities. Fairly or not, that debate has landed in the murky soup of "critical race theory" digressions.
The changes have pitted mathematicians and math educators against each other and sparked criticism from affluent parents upset by the elimination of gifted tracks. They've caused upheaval in one state, California, as professors, parents and teachers spar over proposed changes to the state's K-12 math framework.
"We're not changing or lowering the standards. We're outlining how inequitable the teaching of math is right now," said Jo Boaler, a Stanford University math education professor at the forefront of the changes.
Jo Boaler, a math education professor at Stanford University, teaches a middle school student during the university's "Youcubed" math summer camp in 2015.
Opponents say the new movement effectively dumbs down math education.
Lower-achieving students often have deficits that begin in the early grades, and that's where the focus and energy should go, says Wayne Bishop, a mathematics professor at California State University, Los Angeles.
Increasing hands-on projects can move more children up the pipeline, he says. But that doesn't mean students are well-prepared.
"The result is that more people are admitted to college but fewer are prepared for a hard science or engineering college regimen," Bishop said.
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