Readin, Ritin and Racism
‘Anti-Racist’ Message in Mass. Math Class
Making math more complicated than it needs to be
Mountain: Math curriculum doesn’t add up
Updated 14 February 2004: More information on anti-racist math from Gene Expression. Links at bottom of post.
In Newton Public Schools math classes, addition and subtraction are a secondary priority to their “commitment to active anti-racist education”.
According to benchmarks for middle school education, the top objective for the district’s math teachers is to teach “respect for human differences.” The objective is for students to “live out the system-wide core value of ‘respect for human differences’ by demonstrating anti-racist/anti-bias behaviors.”
Priority No. 2 is where the basics come in, which is “problem solving and representation � students will build new mathematical knowledge as they use a variety of techniques to investigate and represent solutions to problems.”
The school system as a whole focuses on achieving politically correct stance over learning. Their Core Values statement is a travesty of feel-good new-speak almost completely devoid of any mention of actual education.
to provide–and be self-reflective about–authentic, effective, challenging and
creative instruction that is responsive to different learning styles and improves
student achievement. Respect for human differences places the learner at the
center of the teaching and learning and fashions instruction that builds upon the
learner’s unique strengths and addresses his/her needs;to encourage the broadest understanding and acceptance of human differences
(including differences in socio-economic class, gender, race, ethnicity, culture,
language, learning styles, special needs, physical appearance, sexual orientation,
etc.) while affirming fundamental similarities of the human community;
Meanwhile, math scores continue to plummet.
The school department was recently forced to publicly admit that the sixth-grade MCAS math scores have steadily declined over the past three years to the point where 32 percent of sixth-graders are now in the “warning” or “needs improvement” category. This means that if we were to attach a letter grade to these sixth-grade MCAS math results it would be a D-plus, with only 68 percent of the students passing.
And the school administration is clueless as to why.
The school department offered no tangible explanation for these declining scores other than to admit that they have no explanation, as articulated by Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Carolyn Wyatt (salary $106,804), “[The results] have decreased, incrementally, each year and continue to puzzle us.” She went on to admit that this downward trend is peculiar to Newton and “is not being seen statewide.” Again, she offered no explanation, but she did assure the School Committee that her assistant, Math Coordinator Mary Eich (salary $101,399), is currently investigating the problem.
The administration can’t see that 2 and 2 make 4. Unfortunately they are ensuring that their students can’t either.
Other articles on this topic at Joanne Jacobs, Chris Correa and Gene Expression.
(Tip credit to Jason Trommetter)
UPDATE
More information on anti-racist math from Gene Expression:
The immediate roots of the Anti-Racist Math pedagogy.
Details of the actual grad school curricula for a class on how to teach multicultural math.
The ideological foundation of social constructivism that underpins Anti-Racist Math.
All right, it has to be said, and I’ll say it. The public schools have no place teaching anti-racism at all. After all, what is racism? It’s a belief structure, just like any number of other -isms. Can you envision a school with an anti-conservatism, anti-liberalism, anti-Judaism, anti-feminism, anti-environmentalism, or anti-pacifism curriculum? The First Amendment must apply EQUALLY to all beliefs, or it protects none of them.
I think racism stinks, but I also think liberalism, atheism, and vegetariansm are pretty stupid, too. In this country, I don’t get to use the public school to promote ANY of these opinions.
What can the schools do to prevent hate crimes? Simple, teach the social contract - society says you can’t beat ANYBODY up, regardless of their background, and if you do, society will punish you. Simple cause and consequence. We don’t need to debate if it’s right or wrong, we simply outline what is the law of the land and what happens to those who break it. It’s not rocket science.
It’s a good thing home schooling is around. And that it is growing.
I’ve just read your incredible list of articles. The people who are in control of our anti educational system are either dumber than a box of rocks or they are inherently evil.
Children are not being educated. They are consistently being dumbed down.
All in preparation of a nanny state of cradle to grave state ownership.
FYI, it’s not “Newton County” - Newton is a city.
Either way, good thing I went to a private school in Newton… can’t say the same for my sisters (who turned out alright, since they went in the 1990s!)
That should have been Public, not County. It’s corrected now. Thanks for the catch.
Newton is the town where a principal pulled kids out of class to attend a transgender assembly, saying “it was just too important” not to.
A lot of stupidity goes on in Newton from what I’ve read.
Newton is the town where a principal pulled kids out of class to attend a transgender assembly, saying “it was just too important” not to.
A lot of stupidity goes on in Newton from what I’ve read.
If there is any class that is color blind, it is math. Either you can or you can’t… there isn’t any subjectiveness to it. Group work in math is useless, unless all the kids already know the material. Otherwise, you just get the few who can doing the work for the rest who can’t.
my theory is, homeschooling will become a requirement, or online schooling. The prison-schools will be only for kids who are being punished. The online schools can be taught globally. Since the teachers will be from all over the world, there will be no concern about race and especially about historic racism. The curriculum will be global also, so, no need to worried about our minds being contaminated with the radical whatever. It’s cheap too.
I have a math problem for the Newton “administrators”. If a school had a problem with declining math scores on the standardized test, and the administration had not a clue as to what was causing the problem; if each overpaid administrator had $1,000 a day subtracted from their pay, how long would it take to turn the test scores around?
A) one hour
B) one day
C) what problem
Right outside Yale University, the streets boil with rage and citizens express their contempt for the rich invasion of a few downtown blocks on the walls and doors of fastfood bathrooms. The ‘kids’ sometimes have gun battles in the street. Some people are making a difference:
Can Amistad’s Model Succeed in New York?
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/09/education/09amistad.html
In a city where 31 percent of eighth graders achieved mastery on the state reading test in 2003, 81 percent of Amistad’s did. In math, 75 percent of Amistad’s eighth graders achieved mastery, compared with 19 percent citywide.
Joel I. Klein, New York City’s schools chancellor, said he showed his own principals Amistad’s scores and asked, “Can you do this?” He frequently describes the coming of Amistad as one of the most exciting educational developments in the city.
The curriculum emphasizes basic skills and uses tests every six weeks to determine which students need extra drills. When students are lagging, teachers give them extra help or get their parents involved. If they talk back to a teacher or start a fight, they have to sit at the back of the classroom and are not allowed to speak with other students until their punishment has been served.
The nonunion teaching staff puts in long hours, but teachers said the job is rewarding.
The biggest problem with the racist attitudes in Newton is it implies that the poor want sympathy instead of a decent chance to suceed. It’s pays stupid rich kids who can’t add or subtract a living wage.
Hi, I’m from Gene Expression, and thanks for the link. I really went to town on this topic in three follow-up posts. The first
http://www.gnxp.com/MT2/archives/003450.html
follow-up looked at the immediate roots of the Anti-Racist Math pedagogy. The second
http://www.gnxp.com/MT2/archives/003499.html
details the actual grad school curricula for a class on how to teach multicultural math and the third
http://www.gnxp.com/MT2/archives/003549.html
looked at the ideological foundation of social constructivism that underpins Anti-Racist Math.
Taken together, I think the picture is far scarier than just the survey post you linked to.
Ref: swp 10 February 2005 07:04AM
Key word: Nonunion!