Texas education board approves compromise on Algebra II requirement

[alp227]

Source: Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN — Supporters and opponents of a plan to require Algebra II for most Texas high school students struck a compromise Thursday that will require the course only for students specializing in math, science and technology.

The agreement among State Board of Education members headed off debate between the two sides and cleared the way for approval of new graduation requirements for Texas students.

Board members were also scheduled Thursday night to vote on new science, math and technology textbooks and e-books for Texas students. Those books will be in classrooms in the fall of 2014. Most of the attention has been on high school biology books and their coverage of evolution.

The accord on math came a day after the chairs of the House and Senate education committees cautioned the panel against approving the course requirement for all students. Both lawmakers said the proposal was already rejected earlier this year when the Legislature passed a sweeping curriculum and testing law that also called for new graduation requirements.

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20131121-texas-education-board-approves-compromise-on-algebra-ii-requirement.ece

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Wow Texas. From JFK proudly proclaiming at Rice University "we choose to go to the moon" to the state board of ed watering down math and science education in the state's public schools. What a way to commemorate the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination.

[sakabatou]

1. ...the fuck?

I had to take those in school and they're trying to comprimise? WTF?!

[Cryptoad]

21. Tx has

a larger percentage of it citizens without a high school education than any other State! ,,,,,

[iamthebandfanman]

22. i know, right?

even here in Kentucky I was required to take algebra I and II along with geometry...

I went on to take pre-cal (took a test and didnt make it into regular calculus... but really im happy i didn't lol ) my senior year.. totally hated it

[sakabatou]

33. I took pre-calc in my last mathematics class

I didn't think regular mathematics was good. Sucked at math a lot anyway.

[MrModerate]

2. Before too long . . .

Texas will run out of things to dumb down.

Then they'll have to give Rick Perry a second lobotomy to keep the trend going.

[pnwmom]

3. The college bound students will have to take it anyway.

So this mostly affects students who will be ending their educations with high school. Is it really going to make or break a person with a high school diploma to have had Algebra 2? If he ends up going to community college at some point, he can make up the math there.

While I think that all students should be encouraged to take Algebra 2 (one of my kids took Calculus 2 as a junior), I don't think it should be a graduation requirement for everyone. My sister didn't take it. She went to community college and from there to a major state university, where she ended up majoring in art. She also got a good job with the art degree. It never hurt her a bit that she hadn't had Alg 2 in high school.

[Alamuti Lotus]

4. Minor correction: I think it's more their way of *celebrating* that anniversary

I am not familiar with the arguments for or against the measure, but I would imagine "BAHT ITZ HAHRD" and "it distractions from Jazziz Christ(*)" rank fairly high among them. Though the packaging on initiatives may seek to convince otherwise, a frontal assault against all measures of progressive development in education is being pursued as a means of ensuring a future of atomized, demobilized, mediocre, and obedient consumers. Far from a means of ensuring secure dominance of this dystopian result, such measures only hasten the swirling of this rotting edifice down into the sewers that have had their maintenance budgets gutted.

Wait, I don't particularly care for the more complex aspects of Algebra (which is one of them Muslim words, anyway)--why am I opposing this measure? Oh right, it's the principle of it that disturbs me. Carry on.


(*)--not the new Serj Tankian album, I'm assuming nobody involved would cite him in their reasoning

[Paladin]

12. Most DU Texas Haters manage to be coherent.

Time for you to play a little catch-up. After all, if you're going to slam Texas, today's the day to do it. Your best efforts ought to be on display.....

[Rozlee]

30. Hey, I love Texas. I live here. But, I slam it as much as anybody else.

This place is batshit crazy. If my entire family didn't live here, I'd be in Vermont or someplace much more liberal. And to boot, I live in the Hill Country in that asshole, Lamar Smith's district. But, we moved up here to be close to my husband's aging sister and now, with my own husband deteriorating from Alzheimer's, I don't want to upset the apple cart by moving him from his familiar surroundings. But, I've never seen anything like this.

I grew up going to school here before these conservatives took over the school boards. I went to a small rural school and we had sex ed. No politics, no agendas, and not really an organized sex ed. More like special lessons in our human biology class and in our health class. I don't even remember having to have signed permission slips from my parents. We had the Evolution of Man Timeline posters in our biology classrooms. No hue and cry was ever raised. Then, these evangelicals and teahaddists came along and politicized everything, scrutinizing every single book in every library in the state and all the textbooks; cringing from every picture of a uterus in a biology book or a representation of a homo habilis. My grandchildren go to grade school in this state now and I worry about them not getting the quality education that they'll need to succeed in their lives. These conservatives have made us a national laughing stock. They're not going to be happy until they've devolved the entire Texas school system into a theocratically approved institution of evangelical propaganda.

[Chakab]

5. Is this a joke? I graduated from high school in Texas in '97, and I took Algebra II

when I was a sophomore. I finished high school with a year of calculus and a year of trigonometry under my belt.

My situation wasn't typical, but I know for a fact that my school required Algebra II to graduate. Most of the people that I knew took the course when they were juniors. I was lucky enough to have upper middle class parents, so I went to a school that was well-funded by affluent residents in the area that we lived in.


It's sad to see that the graduation requirements are so low. What the fuck are they teaching kids these days besides how to bubble in the answer sheets on standardized tests?

[sammytko]

23. I graduated in 1978 from a Texas school - not required then

I did take trig and pre-cal because I was on a college bound prep course - I think that was what it was called - ??

Anyway, everyone else took FOM 1 and 2 - Fundamentals of Math. Didn't hurt them.

I hate science, so didn't take Chem 1 until I was a senior. Needed it to graduate.

[Crowman1979]

6. They want to keep the kids dumb before Jayzus comes back.

[madrchsod]

7. my mind does not process mathematics.

i just barely passed freshman math in high school. i have over 90 college credits but still have`t past math or chemistry to get my 2 year degrees.

[Android3.14]

8. Gotta keep those percentiles up

Typical. Don't like the results, dumb down the expectations. This is a problem nationwide. The same thing will happen to the Common Core standards.

[Igel]

9. The future of Common Core.

TX was leading edge in the "rigor" and testing movement.

It jumped the shark. It tried to move too fast. The result was a huge number of kids who couldn't pass the more rigorous tests based on more rigorous standards in 9th grade. Then they hit 10th grade and it was going to be more of the same. Parents reasonably predicted that by the time their kids were seniors they'd have to pass 8-12 different tests to graduate, most of which they'd failed multiple times already.

So the tests bit the dust.

With the testing requirement were increased science and math requirements. 4 x 4: Four years each history, English, math, science. That was unpopular among a lot of kids. "I want to major in consumer child floral application science, but that's not considered a science!" were upset. And, to tell the truth, many of the kids need basic home ec and "how to take care of the baby" classes since they're not taught that at home. In many cases their parents have no clue.

The debate around this was precisely the same as around the Common Core standards in most of the country. Too hard. Too focused. Not appropriate. Tests are too hard--they're testing what should be taught. Teachers having to relearn how to teach. In some cases, teachers having to learn new content. Shifts in teacher employment. The need for more tutoring time, so longer hours all around. (The difference between a lot of Common Core and Texas' new TEKS and CCRS a few years ago ... not so much.)

Those defending rigor were back-footed. They lost ground. "Smart" kids couldn't do algebra, so it had to be the test's problem--parents knew the kids were smart, how dare the tests fail to confirm their hypothesis. Now less is tested than 5 years ago. And in many classes you've in one year seen them dial back the content. In some schools you've seen perhaps 25% of last year's curriculum just vanish. Grades haven't improved--most students have no problems failing to meet lower standards. A lot of teachers have no problem with lower standards easier--fewer worries about administrative oversight, consequences to low student achievement and, to be honest, it's just easier. And most teachers are relieved--how is it that their class average can be 90 and their "at risk" and minority kids have exactly the same averages as the white and Asian kids--but then most of their kids fail the test and not a single minority student comes close to passing?

Two other factors. Texas prides itself on having among the high high school graduation rates in the country and, last year, the black graduation rate was also among the highest. As the new standards took effect, the achievement gap became very, very obvious. And it was likely the graduation rates would drop and also reflect the achievement gap.

[watoos]

10. Algebra II will be replaced

with Phys. Ed II.

[Botany]

11. But Texas does have $60 million high school football fields

[Archae]

13. Forty years ago I flunked Algebra I.

I get to fractions and collide with a brick wall.

I had to take a year of alternative "Practical Math."

[bhikkhu]

19. As did I, though they had to give me a D- because they didn't send out the "flunk" notice in time

Then I took bonehead math the next year (instead of geometry) to get enough credits to graduate. I got stuck on the quadratic equation - it made no sense at all to me and I lost interest. 20 years later I slogged through college algebra, mostly on my own, figured it out and got a B.

I am always impressed by how the standards have been raised over the years, and how well so many of the kids do. My older daughter passed Algebra II sophmore and then Pre-cal (where I was no help whatsoever).

For the most part, good teachers are required, and high expectations for the kids. Most seem to do fine, and that's really what is needed to set them up for college and as prep for a fairly technology-intensive future. Of course, if low expectations are the rule, then the teachers don't matter much either and you just wind up with menial-labor candidates who can be out-competed by any number of other half-way advanced societies...

[Archae]

25. "Bonehead math?"

Yeah, that's what it was.
As is, the guy who sat next to me in the alternative math class flunked that class also.

I think he got down on his knees and thanked God when the pocket calculators stopped being expensive bricks.

[procon]

27. Same with me

I actually liked math as a child even though I struggled mightily to grasp seemingly simple problems. It was very embarrassing and frustrating for me. My parents and teachers constantly harangued me for being a poor student even though my precocious vocabulary and reading skills were years beyond my grade level.

Much later, I participated in a college program that was examining dyslexia. While most of us understand that dyslexia is the inability to decode and grasp the meaning of printed words, there is also a rare form of dyslexia that affects the understanding simple number concepts.

Dyscalculia is dyslexia for numbers. In my case, a series of more than 3 numbers becomes a jumbled mishmash where a 9 becomes a P, or a 5 morphs into an S. Addresses, phone numbers and measurements are my shortcomings. Over time, I learned to compensate by forming a mental 'snapshot' of numbers, or chanting the series like a mantra to 'fix' it in my memory. It's not a foolproof system.

[Victor_c3]

14. With its obvious Arabic name, I'm surprised they even teach it

Teaching Al-gebra is obviously a liberal scheme to subtly introduce and convert our youth to Islam...

[NobodyHere]

16. Until reading your post I never thought of algebra as an arabic word

From Wikipedia

"The word algebra comes from the Arabic language (الجبر al-jabr "restoration&quot from the title of the book Ilm al-jabr wa'l-muḳābala by al-Khwarizmi. The word entered the English language during Late Middle English from either Spanish, Italian, or Medieval Latin. Algebra originally referred to a surgical procedure, and still is in Spanish, while the mathematical sense was a later development"

[AtheistCrusader]

18. Consider too, Arabic vs. Roman numerals. :D

[Archae]

26. I thought it was a mermaids' underwear.

Algae-bra?

[Dopers_Greed]

15. I had to take that #$%& class

And I went to school in Texas...it was required at my high school.

It's only fair that all future students should have to suffer what I did.

[AtheistCrusader]

17. I never took that here in Seattle.

That said, it should be (And I think it is a requirement now), and we should be pushing higher, not accepting less, as time goes on.

That is the time of your life to do it and get that framework laid. I had to learn it much later in life, and it was just that much harder to retain the information, being older when I was first exposed to it. Get it done, it's good for you.

[Cryptoad]

20. a plank from the 2012 platform of the Republican Party of Texas

a plank from the 2012 platform of the Republican Party of Texas which, astonishingly enough, reads as follows: "We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."

[littlewolf]

24. I know this is from way back, just after Dinosaurs roaming the earth

and all
but when I graduated you had 3 choices.
1. College prep. all the Algebra I and II, Calc, Geometry etc
2. Business. Business math, bookkeeping, etc
3. General. General math

I took general as a freshman and business math as a Jr. did ok
for me.

again if your college bound, you will need it, if your not it isn't going to effect you much.
I do wish I had taken Algebra I, would have help developing Logic solving
I did take it later at Comm. College.
never took Algebra II.

[penndragon69]

28. Unless you are going to college...

Algebra is utterly useless. We don't really even need algebra 1 let alone calculus and trig.
It's just another way to pit the smart against the common students.

[LanternWaste]

29. I certainly wouldn't consider it useless as every time I need to problem solve a situation...

I certainly wouldn't consider it useless as every time I need to problem solve a situation that involves money, time, distance, perimeter of a fence or skate ramp, volume of something, comparing prices when I shop, rent something - cost versus time, other situations I am using algebra. For example...

When filling my car up with gas I use algebra. Lets say I only have $20.00 to spend on gas today and gas is $3.50 a gallon. How many gallons could I buy?

Let x = # of gallons of gas

3.50x=20.00
x=5.71 gallons




And that's both a common and a useful application of algebra...

[Rstrstx]

31. True, but...

...that would definitely be Algebra I material

[okasha]

35. Or you could just divide 20

by 3.5, fourth grade arithmetic, instead of complicating the problem into an algebraic equation.

[Posteritatis]

38. Lower those common denominators, I suppose. (nt)

[brooklynite]

32. If you only have to count to 6,000, the math is easier...

[blkmusclmachine]

34. We dunt need no stinkin math....

[kelliekat44]

36. Ignorance is bliss... Algebra teaches more "critical thinking" than complicated math.

No wonder American children are falling behind.

[okasha]

37. Board has just voted

to adopt real science books, despite the protests of the usual suspects.