Equity issue or just different needs among students? Modesto trustees debate math course
.JPG "The Modesto City Schools board voted down a recommendation by the district’s math curriculum committee to for one year have pre-algebra offered at high school. The class was called remedial and inequitable.")
After initially voting against recommended adoption of a ninth-grade math course, citing issues including equity, the Modesto City Schools board revisited the item and reversed its decision.
The passionate debate over the one-year (2021-22) adoption of the pre-algebra course recommended by the district’s math committee occurred at the May 10 board meeting. After the initial 4-3 vote against the course, district Superintendent Sara Noguchi told trustees she strongly believes it was “a bad decision. It’s not good for kids.”
Trustee Abel Maestas had asked the item be removed from the consent agenda at the board meeting, calling the class remedial and saying, “The data and the historical research all show that these remedial classes are inequitable, and ... besides the class, we don’t ever offer anything to help those kids move along.”
Prior to discussion of the item, the board heard a different take, from Johansen High School math teacher Maurice Chambers, who said he sees a widening learning gap among math students. The 30-year teacher said the district’s math committee has done a fine job of looking at the data of the past several years and has concluded there’s a large arithmetic and algebraic learning gap among students.
“Those students who are multiple grade levels behind deserve another opportunity ... to fill in those gaps,” he told the board. “They deserve an opportunity to learn in a class where mastery can be attained.”
Being thrust as ninth-graders into an algebra class without having the prerequisite skills will lead only to more frustration and failure, Chambers said. That will negatively affect district graduation rates, he said, “and most importantly diminish their confidence and competence.”
In Modesto City Schools, pre-algebra is a recommended eighth-grade course. It is considered a below-grade-level course for high school freshmen.
But taking pre-algebra will not hinder students’ ability to satisfy their A-G requirements and they still have a pathway to college, Chambers said.
Trustee notes ‘clear inequities’
Maestas told his board colleagues that he taught high school pre-algebra in a predominantly upper-class area and found that most of the Latino and Black students were in his class. They did go onto college because the school offered them lots of support, he said, but there were “clear inequities in who was being placed in the class.”
He cited reports, including one by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, that indicate students placed in less rigorous versions of algebra ultimately have lower achievement in mathematics even if their performance in the less rigorous version of the course is stronger than that of students in more rigorous versions.
“The result of these placement practices is the same: inequitable learning outcomes,” the trustee said.
He later added, “We can’t go back to things that we know haven’t worked.”
It’s true that students can meet the A-G requirements even with pre-algebra, Maestas said, but more and more colleges are looking for students to have taken higher-level mathematics.
He suggested a better course of action is offering students “a dual enrollment support course, where students can grasp numeracy and those skills that are important to access algebra, while they’re taking algebra.”
District working with various models
Noguchi said she agreed that remedial courses can be damaging in the long term, but agreed with Chambers that there are students coming out of distance learning because of the pandemic who don’t have the basic skills to succeed in algebra.
Over the next two years, she said, the district will have a pilot program of sorts, using different models, including at some schools the type of support course Maestas spoke of. The pre-algebra course is by no means a long-term fix, Noguchi said, and the curriculum contract is for one year.
“We need to work with what we have within the next two years and do what we can to get the kids up to speed to be able to take algebra,” she said.
Mike Rich, senior director of math and science in the district’s curriculum, instruction and professional development division, added that in this unprecedented time of the pandemic, “there is no research to tell us what would be best for this and we’re looking for different ways to approach an answer.”
Trustee Homero Mejia asked if the item could be tabled for a later meeting so the district can look at options. Noguchi answered that there’s not time because master schedules are done for next year and curriculum needs to be in place for teacher training. Mejia ultimately voted against the pre-algebra course.
Board Vice President Adolfo Lopez said he agreed with Maestas that there’s a problem, and with Mejia that options need to be explored immediately. But “I would still vote in favor of passing this curriculum at this point,” he said. When the board later voted, though, Lopez opposed approval.
Trustee Cindy Marks asked if COVID relief funds could be spent on tutoring to help students in algebra classes, to which Noguchi replied, “We’re not going to tutor our way out of this problem.” But she added that using tutoring along with support classes and different models at different school sites may be a way to more quickly meet students’ needs and reduce the pilot program from two years to one.
Not an equity issue, trustee argues
Noting the “full spectrum of math skills” among his own children,” from one’s mastery to another’s “block against simple math procedures,” trustee Chad Brown said he doesn’t see this as an equity issue. The way different minds work, some students simply need an extra year of focus to even be able to touch algebra, he said.
In the first vote on the item, Marks, Lopez, Maestas and Mejia opposed adding the pre-algebra curriculum. Board President Charlene West and trustees Brown and John Ervin III voted to approve it.
At that point, Noguchi said, “I am going to put on the record that I strongly believe that this is a bad decision. It’s not good for kids. We’re coming out of a pandemic. But certainly we will go with the will of the board, but this is not a good decision, not for our kids, not now.”
West said she agreed, and then added, “Math is so huge for kids to develop that confidence, and students who have confidence are so much more successful than students who have that self-doubt in math. I see it happening all the time and so I worry about not being able to give them this opportunity.”
Toward the close of the meeting, Marks asked that the agenda item be reconsidered.
During additional discussion of the course, Ervin also used his own child to make his point. His son, now a cybersecurity engineer with Amazon, went from being a D student in junior high math to an A student with a different instructor “all because of teacher engagement.”
He added, “I can’t stress enough, it’s not always about the system, per se. Sometimes it’s about the teacher.”
In the second vote on the item, Marks went in favor of adopting the pre-algebra course. Maestas, Mejia and Lopez remained opposed.
In an email to The Bee on Monday, MCS administration said that in mathematics, students are taught to look for multiple ways to approach problems. “We are attempting the same in our approach by offering a pre-algebra course for one year only, as well as an algebra course coupled with concurrent support. There will be limited sections of pre-algebra that will only be offered for incoming ninth-graders, to help these students with developing the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in their math curriculum. The pre-algebra course will not be repeatable.”
District leaders say they have concerns that students are not being offered equitable access to the core curriculum. “We are looking for ways to help support our students who are most at-risk from an educational perspective of not being successful, especially due to the extreme circumstances of unfinished learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
MCS will use measures including parental consent, benchmark exams and teacher recommendations to identify students who will best benefit from an intense review of prerequisite algebraic standards. The district says it will monitor student success in pre-algebra and algebra classes and provide instructional support resources throughout the year.
“With this approach, students will still be on a path to complete three years of the required A-G mathematics courses that are needed for four-year university admissions,” its email said.
Video of the board meeting can be viewed on the MCS Board of Education channel at YouTube.
This story was originally published May 17, 2021 at 9:35 AM.
