If Algebra in Middle School Is Good for My Kid, It's Probably Good for Yours Too
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder calls out the hypocrisy of education leaders who support rigorous coursework for their own children while promoting lower standards for other people's kids.
Key Takeaways
- The hypocrisy is glaring - Leaders who send their kids to schools with high standards while lowering standards for others reveal their true beliefs
- Every student deserves rigor - If algebra in middle school benefits some students, access should be expanded rather than restricted
- Equity means raising the floor, not lowering the ceiling - True equity gives all students access to challenging coursework
Transcript
It's been really interesting to watch the Joe Bowler story blow up over the past week after she was accused in a 100-page anonymous complaint of citation misrepresentation and a reckless disregard for accuracy in her research, research that she used to justify enormous consulting fees, $5,000 an hour.
for consulting and delivering professional development that she used to justify the recommendations of the California Mathematics Framework, which ultimately was revised and then adopted, and that led San Francisco and other districts to delay algebra until high school, to basically ban the practice of allowing students who were ready to take algebra in middle school.
And remember, this was done in the name of equity.
This was done out of the belief that it would make things better for lower-income students.
And now we know that that was not correct.
It was based on faulty research and it turned out not to work anyway.
But the part that gets me, and here's where you got to read this story.
You can go to principalcenter.com slash Joe for a shortcut to this story.
The part that gets me is the hypocrisy, the elite hypocrisy that says, I know what's best for other people's kids, but it's not what's best for my kid.
I'm going to do something different for my kid.
I'm going to send my kid to a $48,000 a year private school that guess what?
teaches algebra in middle school.
That to me should be the red flag, right?
When people say, oh, other people's kids need algebra, not till high school.
My kids get algebra in middle school.
Something is wrong there.
And I think whenever we have elites making recommendations like, oh, equitable grading, low, you know, minimum grades of 50 for anything that you turn in no matter when, or even if you don't come to school at all, you still get a 50.
Like these policies that we're hearing are just low expectations.
And if you look at the elites who are pushing for them, ask yourself, what are they doing for their own kids?
And I think Joe Bowler is probably one of just many who is doing something else for their own kids.
So let me know what you think about this.
Check out the full story at principalcenter.com slash Joe, and I would love to know what you think about it.