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<div class="gmail-css-1vkm6nb ehdk2mb0"><h1 id="gmail-link-bdd7843" class="gmail-css-1l8buln e1h9rw200">In California, a Math Problem: Does Data Science = Algebra II?</h1></div><p id="gmail-article-summary" class="gmail-css-1n0orw4 e1wiw3jv0">After
faculty protests and a debate over racial equity, the state’s public
universities reconsider whether high school students can skip a
foundational course.</p>
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<div class="gmail-css-103l8m3"><div class="gmail-css-1u5onbp epjyd6m1"><div class="gmail-css-165eim7 ey68jwv0" aria-hidden="true"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/amy-harmon" class="gmail-css-uwwqev"><img alt="Amy Harmon" title="Amy Harmon" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/04/29/reader-center/author-amy-harmon/author-amy-harmon-thumbLarge-v2.png" class="gmail-css-dc6zx6 ey68jwv2"></a></div><div class="gmail-css-233int epjyd6m0"><p class="gmail-css-4anu6l e1jsehar1"><span class="gmail-byline-prefix">By </span><span class="gmail-css-1baulvz gmail-last-byline"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/amy-harmon" class="gmail-css-n8ff4n e1jsehar0">Amy Harmon</a></span></p></div></div></div><div><div class="gmail-css-3xqm5e">July 13, 2023</div></div>
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<div class="gmail-css-s99gbd gmail-StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="gmail-css-53u6y8"><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Since 2020, California has led a contentious experiment in high school math.</p><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">That
year, public universities in the state — including Berkeley and
U.C.L.A. — loosened their admissions criteria, telling high schools that
they would consider applicants who had skipped Algebra II, a
cornerstone of math instruction.</p><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In
its place, students could take data science — a mix of math, statistics
and computer science without widely agreed upon high school standards.
Allowing data science, <a class="gmail-css-yywogo" href="https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/committees/boars/documents/statement-on-mathematics-preparation-for-uc.pdf" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the universities said</a>,
was an “equity issue” that could send more students to college. But it
also raised concerns that some teenagers would be channeled into less
challenging coursework, limiting their opportunities once they got
there.</p><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Now, the California experiment is under review.</p><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">On
Wednesday, the State Board of Education voted to remove its endorsement
of data science as a substitute for Algebra II as part of new
guidelines for K-12 schools.</p><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“We have
to be careful and deliberate about ensuring rigor,” Linda
Darling-Hammond, president of the state board, said before the vote.</p></div></div><div><div class="gmail-css-8atqhb"></div></div><div class="gmail-css-s99gbd gmail-StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="gmail-css-53u6y8"><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The
board took its cue from the state university system, which also
appeared to back away this week from data science as a substitute for
Algebra II.</p></div></div>
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<div class="gmail-css-s99gbd gmail-StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="gmail-css-53u6y8"><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">A
U.C. faculty committee — which controls admission requirements for the
state’s entire public university system — announced on Wednesday that it
will re-examine what high school courses, including data science, meet
the standards for “advanced math.” </p><div></div><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The
turnabout in California reflects the national quandary over how to
balance educational standards with racial and economic equity. Could
data science draw students into higher-level math? Or will offering data
science as an alternative to algebra divert students from obtaining the
quantitative skills required for a range of careers? Should there be a
workaround if higher math is blocking some students from attending
college?</p><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In California, hundreds of
high schools across the state now offer data science courses. The
ability to collect and assess data is a valuable life skill, which could
benefit every student.</p><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">And California
is one of 17 states that now offer data science to high school students
in some form, and at least two states, Oregon and Ohio, offer it as an
alternative to Algebra II, according to Zarek Drozda, the director of
Data Science 4 Everyone, a philanthropy-backed organization based at the
University of Chicago.</p></div></div><div class="gmail-css-s99gbd gmail-StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="gmail-css-53u6y8"><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The
push for data science is also complicated by the wide racial
disparities in advanced math, especially in calculus, which is a
prerequisite for most science and math majors. In 2019, 46 percent of
Asian high school graduates nationally had completed calculus, compared
with 18 percent of white students, 9 percent of Hispanic students and 6
percent of Black students, according to a <a class="gmail-css-yywogo" href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/sod#suggested-citation" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2022 study</a> by the National Center for Education Statistics.</p><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Many
educators are justifiably concerned that the calculus pathway
institutionalizes racial inequities by decreasing the number of Black
and Latino students in college,’’ Robert Gould, the author of a high
school data science course, wrote in <a class="gmail-css-yywogo" href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/test.12267" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a 2021 article</a>.
Data science courses, he suggested, connect students’ everyday lives to
their academic careers, “which one hopes will lead to a more diverse
university enrollment.’’</p><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But in a <a class="gmail-css-yywogo" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23871442-letter-to-boars" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">May 2022 letter</a>
to the U.C. faculty senate committee, eight Black faculty members
argued that data science courses “harm students from such groups by
steering them away from being prepared for STEM majors.”</p><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Race isn’t the only issue. Hundreds of faculty members from the state’s public and private universities have signed an <a class="gmail-css-yywogo" href="https://sites.google.com/view/mathindatamatters/home" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">open letter</a>
expressing concern that substituting data science for Algebra II would
lower academic standards. Offering a way around Algebra II, they said,
deprives students of their best chance to absorb the mathematical
principles increasingly central to many fields, including economics,
biology and political science.</p><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">There
was also dissent from the California State University System. Its
academic senate stated in January that the shift “threatens to increase
the number of students entering the CSU who are identified as needing
extra support to succeed.”</p></div></div><div><div class="gmail-css-8atqhb"></div></div><div class="gmail-css-s99gbd gmail-StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="gmail-css-53u6y8"><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But
supporters have argued that data science is important for navigating an
increasingly number-centric society and would help more students go to,
and graduate from, college. Jo Boaler, a math education professor at
Stanford who has been a vocal proponent of data science, argued <a class="gmail-css-yywogo" href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-10-23/math-high-school-algebra-data-statistics" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">in an opinion piece</a>
in The Los Angeles Times that Algebra II is largely irrelevant for many
students: “When was the last time you divided a polynomial?”</p><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Some
faculty members said that, at the very least, students and parents
should understand that high school data science won’t even qualify a
student to take data science in college — because undergraduate data
science classes require calculus.</p><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“The
messaging is very confusing,” Brian Conrad, a Stanford professor and
director of undergraduate studies in math, said. “Who would think that
taking a course in high school chemistry would not be useful for
chemistry in college?”</p><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><br></p><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><br></p><p class="gmail-css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"><br></p></div></div><div class="gmail-bottom-of-article"><div class="gmail-css-1jp38cr"><div class="gmail-css-cw8msf eqi4ubu0"><div class="gmail-css-kzd6pg"><p><span class="gmail-css-97bxx6"><a class="gmail-authorPageLinkClass gmail-overrideLinkStyles" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/amy-harmon">Amy Harmon</a></span>
is a national correspondent, covering the intersection of science and
society. She has won two Pulitzer Prizes, for her series “The DNA Age”,
and as part of a team for the series “How Race Is Lived in America.”<span class="gmail-css-kzd6pg"> <a class="gmail-authorPageLinkClass gmail-overrideLinkStyles" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/amy-harmon">More about Amy Harmon</a></span></p></div></div></div></div>
</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/us/california-math-data-science-algebra.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/us/california-math-data-science-algebra.html</a></div></div>