The AP of a very prestigious school in a "B" borough has decided that all incoming students should take geometry or a more advanced course, even if they never took algebra. The AP wants all the students to be able to take calculus before they graduate.
This sounds good, but there is a major problem. THE KIDS KNOW NO ALGEBRA! They can barely solve a linear equation, let alone a quadratic one. They know nothing of polynomials, like terms, or radicals.
The saddest part of all this is that they will probably pass the geometry regents. I just read a statistic that says 74% of the kids who took it last year passed and since these kids are very bright, they will pass. The school might even be able to pull off some miracle and get them into calculus, but at what cost? And, with all the pressure being put on teachers, these kids will pass calculus as well. Following an education plan like this will surely make NYC school children "Race To The Top" losers.
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A few years ago I was teaching summer school and one of those Leadership Academy Principals sent his future ninth graders to take a special science course that I was teaching. As he checked up on them he told me that he decided that he was requiring all his tenth graders to take Chemistry. I told him that he might want to give them Earth Science and save Chemistry for their junior year. He sneered at me and said I have faith in the students and they will reward my faith in showing the skeptics that they can do it. The result? He had a 12% passing rate. The next year he changed it to what I suggested to him in the first place.
They will have big problems in the Advanced Alg/Trig class wo AT LEAST 75 on IA Regents
I just saw this (http://www.detentionslip.org/2010/04/nyc-agrees-to-shut-rubber-rooms.html) over at Detention Slip. Could this possibly be true?
I suppose he took credit for the change too.
It makes me wonder if said administrator has ever taken calculus...
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