Bigotry of low expectations: San Fransisco's decision to delay algebra to 9th grade backfires

[Sestak]

This is a commonly known fact that school districts choose to ignore again and again because it’s “too hard” to deal with. You need basic calculus in high school to be able to get a college degree in basically anything STEM-related without falling behind early and struggling (despite the political craze over replacing calculus with ‘data science’, any degree that lends itself to a job doing data analysis or the like will still be much easier with calculus in high school!). In turn, you cannot have Calculus in 12th grade from Algebra in 9th without an absolutely ridiculous breakneck pace of curriculum in high school.

Every time this has been studied, the same result has come. Even offering a delay of Algebra to 9th grade shuts out a large proportion of students from a very large and growing segment of decently good paying jobs by the end of middle school. Mandating it is actual madness. But districts think it’s too hard to get all their students prepared to learn algebra by 8th grade so they stick their heads in the sand.

[Sestak]

I think we need to drastically reform education away from the classical renessiance type of education. Most people don't need algebra, but would benefit from mastering basic math skills. And learning more practical math concepts like taxes, economic data, data managment in the workplace, starting a business etc.

I think basic algebra is fine and everyone should know the basics. Anything beyond that should be an optional path. I think most people would be far better off with a required statistics course in high school. I took algebra in middle school and I can't say that any of my higher math classes in high school have helped me in the real world. I didn't take a statistics class until college.

Algebra II is useless in real life unless you need them for college STEM courses. Even then, for calculus, all that Algebra II is really used for is to calculate the fundamential theorem of calculus.

what kind of galaxy take is this