ROSE FERRERO SCHOOL

Recently, Jo Boaler, the professor of mathematics education at Stanford University, wrote an op-ed in a large newspaper that companies like Google, Apple and Intel offer some of California’s most cutting-edge — and highest-paying — jobs. Moreover, last year, those same three companies alone brought in more than 10,000 people from other countries to take those jobs. Now, one would think that it would be much simpler for them to hire closer to home and skip the visa and other paperwork required. Yet, among the key reasons they don’t is that too few Californians have the skills — in particular, the deep understanding of mathematics — to qualify. It’s a situation she states (and I am sure we all agree) we shouldn’t tolerate, and something the state’s new proposed math framework, which she helped to write, seeks to change.

Even before the pandemic — which has slowed learning for so many, especially our youngest ones — only about 40% of students in California were proficient in math. That means 60% of the state’s students are not meeting standards, making California one of the lowest-achieving states in the country, which also means that we are not keeping up with global competition. America ranked 37th in math in 2018, according to the Program for International Student Assessment, which measures how effectively countries are preparing students for the mathematical demands of the 21st century. That’s why a committee of 20 educators from across California was appointed in 2019 to come up with a different approach to teaching math and update the state’s mathematics framework. Fortunately for all of us, well for me at least, Jo Boaler was one of five writers charged with articulating the ideas of this group.

One of the new courses set out in the framework for students in their junior and senior years is data science, a subject that students respond to, is valued by colleges and important for the future. Giving students more mathematical options, and encouraging more students to take high-level math courses, is critical in a time when jobs are blossoming in areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, information security, data analysis and software engineering.

Finally, this is a deeply personal topic for Boaler. As she tells it, at her local public secondary school in England, her physics teacher told her that she could not advance to higher levels of science since she was not capable of learning the content. Her teacher gave the same message to every girl in the class. Boaler’s family fought back, and she ended up excelling in physics in school. In fact, her first assignment as a mathematics teacher in London was to teach 13-year-olds who had been assigned to the lower-level tracks. One girl from a low-income home understood the message of that tracking all too well when she caught Boaler up short with the question, “Why should I bother?”

The question posed to Boaler by one of her students became their “shared challenge”, according to Boaler. She goes on to tell that she gave her more difficult work to the student so that she could do well on the national mathematics exam. The student passed that exam, which allowed her to train to become a sound engineer, and she went on to found a prominent sound production company. Boaler states, “Her career would not have been possible if she had only been allowed to do the work set out for her on the lower math track. Both she and I had been told we were not good enough for the quantitative subjects we were studying — and it was not true for either of us.” Too many students in California are given the same message — and it is one of the reasons the U.S. has relatively few students who are proficient in math. California’s new math framework will help us do better.

1). Teachers: Please remember to use the What, Why, & How regarding your Learning Targets at some point in every lesson … explaining to students What we are going to learn, Why we are going to learn this, and How they (the students) will know when they have learned it.

2). Teachers: Please remember that students only miss recess for violations that occur at recess – not for “academic issues.” However, you may keep a student in with you during any recess for classroom issues you feel warrant missing recess to have a discussion with the student regarding the importance of learning.

3). Teachers: Please remind your students to use hand-sanitizer and/or wash their hands thoroughly many times throughout the day (and you should do the same as well).