California College Chancellor Wants To Abolish Algebra Requirement, Calls It A ‘Civil Rights Issue’
Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor of California Community Colleges, made the argument while speaking with NPR. He pegged algebraas overly burdensome due to the disproportionate rate at which it prevents students from graduating from community colleges; nearly 50 percent of community college students do not complete their math requirement.
“This is a civil rights issue, but this is also something that plagues all Americans — particularly low-income Americans,” said Oakley. “If you think about all the underemployed or unemployed Americans in this country who cannot connect to a job in this economy — which is unforgiving of those students who don’t have a credential — the biggest barrier for them is this algebra requirement. It’s what has kept them from achieving a credential.”
NPR suggested that Oakley was trying to improve the California community college graduation rate, pointing out that less than half of the system’s students transfer to a four-year college or obtain an associate’s degree from the community college within six years. But the chancellor denied this implication.
as one who hated Algebra in High School and never want to go to college ......
if a student is enrolled in a NON STEM Program why should they have to complete an Algebra Class [or course]
- standard math or maybe [like I did in High School]
Consumer Math
- teach basic interest - savings and loans,
- balancing a check book
- figuring cost per unit in a grocery store - If I buy 10 oz bottle of ABC for X and a 20 oz bottle of ABC for Y which is a better bargin
Vocational Math - Teach reading a Ruler
- Fractions - converting Fractions to decimal
- some basic Geometry you might use in framing a wall
- The Pythagorean Theorem - so you can figure the unknown side of a triangle
I would not frame the argument as racial ... now you are saying people of color are too ignorant to learn