If the goal is equity, the easy way to accomplish it is to hamper the good students.
In many places it will work out as the smart ones will need to tutor the bad at math students. So they will be very good at basic math, but no advance math. Goodby scientists and engineers.
Curious as to what "The teacher would challenge the more advanced students with more complex work. This is called differentiated instruction and, to some degree, it happens all the time in class." actually means. Unless more complex work is free tutoring.

"A major element of the framework emphasizes grouping students with different levels of preparation through the 10th grade."

This isn't exactly a new thing. Though they may intend to be more obvious and forceful about it.

"The academics who wrote the framework say such "heterogenous" groups will function more effectively than such classes in the past."

This is where you need a definition in terms. What do you mean by 'more effective'?

Closing the black/white achievement gap has been a goal for US public schools for well over 50 years now. So what tactics have proven effective in getting this done?

The most effective solution is minimal skillset testing. If everyone gets 100% you can't tell if one person knows more than another. The test is saturated out and no differences can be measured. Of course that doesn't mean everyone has the same skillset or IQ. Just that you can't measure any difference.

The second most effective solution is peer pressure. There is a body of evidence that shows under current rules and regulations the main factor in student scholastic achievement is the other students in the class and the culture of their parents. Good students tend to bring up the accomplishments of everyone in their class and bad students drag down everyone as well.

If your kid is a 'good student' then the California school system is intending to sacrifice their future achievements in order to improve the achievements of another lower performing student.

"How About Hiring Good Teachers Instead Of Holding Back Good Students?" ~Amy

Until you are willing to get rid of the rules and regulations that prevent teachers from making a difference hiring good teachers doesn't matter.

The failure of public education is multi-faceted.

Yes, the union system allows poor and mediocre teachers to survive within it. That should be changed.

But there are some kids who are not teachable. They have no business being in school and disrupting learning for everyone else. The idea of mandatory public education is a failure.

By making public education voluntary (and difficult to access), I believe you'd find that many parents would not take their children's school experience so much for granted. If kids had to pass a competency test every year (every quarter?) in order to stay in school, schooling would be looked at more like something to be desired and competed for, instead of something to be endured or tolerated.

And the unteachable and unruly kids would be weeded out of the system and forced to find an alternative path to adulthood (or never reach adulthood). Child labor is not always a bad thing. And it would force some of the tax dollars thrown at public education be redirected to more blue-collar vocational training, where it has always belonged.

Face it, 100% of those cherubic 2nd graders don't all deserve to go to college someday. The educational system needs to be split into groups based upon their true capabilities, not their ages. Remaining in, and advancing in the school system needs to be more meritocratic. Failure to learn should not result in being held back a grade, it should result in being kicked out of the school system until they can test back in to their appropriate age level. We'd know the ones that get back in are really motivated then.

Here's a thought that just came to me. Pay kids if they maintain achievement to stay in school, just like it was a job. And if they don't maintain achievement, they're fired. Out they go into the hard cruel world. Bet some parents would really care then if little Junior passed his math test, when part of the family income depended on it.

From the article:

“All students deserve powerful mathematics,” the guidelines state. “We reject ideas of natural gifts and talents ... and the ‘cult of the genius.’”

What the everloving fuck. There are natural gifts and talents in all forms of scholarship. And what are "powerful mathematics"?

Wait, wait, don't tell me: I've gone Galt on all things child-related, and this reminds me why.

"And what are "powerful mathematics"?"

Attach a bigger motor to your math?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBNPAJLhKZ4

" If kids had to pass a competency test every year (every quarter?) in order to stay in school, schooling would be looked at more like something to be desired and competed for, instead of something to be endured or tolerated."

Interesting idea but one main problem with it, the tests will be made biased. If not initially, then when all races don't pass identically. It will be changed to differnt languages then including slang then be more opinion questions with the "correct" answer. Basically all the arguments given against SATs right now.

Poor teachers. This sounds exponentially onerous.

"One vignette presents to students the problem of balancing the survival of endangered bowhead whales, decimated by commercial whaling, with the needs of a native population that has relied on hunting whales for food, economic sustenance and cultural traditions.
Students must develop a plan that would allow hunting while also permitting the whale species to survive and thrive. The variables with mathematical components would include the growth rate and life cycle of the whale and the food yield and economic impact of the hunt."

Finding the set of solutions to this problem requires calculus, linear algebra, differential equations and the ability to formulate a mathematical model of a complex system. The person who originally wrote this is either a mathematical ignoramus or a hypocrite.

Finding the set of solutions to this problem requires calculus, linear algebra, differential equations and the ability to formulate a mathematical model of a complex system. The person who originally wrote this is either a mathematical ignoramus or a hypocrite. ~ Bill Sorokin at May 29, 2021 12:43 PM

Finding a solution to this requires that the solver be educated in various mathematical disciplines, exactly what the Framework is rejecting.

The draft framework offers "vignettes" of these practices in action -- and members of the state's Instructional Quality Commission have asked the writing committee to add more for further clarity.

So, what California proposes is, instead of educating student in mathematics, showing them what they could do if they were educated in mathematics.

Solid plan, that.

"Finding a solution to this requires that the solver be educated in various mathematical disciplines, exactly what the Framework is rejecting."
Thank you for saying succinctly the message I wanted to get across.
Some folks be good at Basketball, other people are have the potential to be capable of learning and applying mathematics.
The later should be identified and encouraged, not held back, penalized and probably have the crap beaten out of them by their ghetto classmates, when they are forced to be "peer tutors", ie enslaved as unpaid unrewarded teachers of the unteachable, in "heterogeneous classes".
The US cannot afford to dismantle its educational system in order to forcibly impose equality, or the PRC which is now producing hordes of well trained technologists, is going to get the jump on bio-weaponry and nano-tech, and that will be the end of the West and all its liberal ideals.

> Poor teachers.

I'll just never ever ever ever ever feel that way ever.

Bust their unions, then we can talk about sympathies.

"One vignette presents to students the problem of balancing the survival of endangered bowhead whales, decimated by commercial whaling, with the needs of a native population that has relied on hunting whales for food, economic sustenance and cultural traditions.
Students must develop a plan that would allow hunting while also permitting the whale species to survive and thrive. The variables with mathematical components would include the growth rate and life cycle of the whale and the food yield and economic impact of the hunt."

Finding the set of solutions to this problem requires calculus, linear algebra, differential equations and the ability to formulate a mathematical model of a complex system. The person who originally wrote this is either a mathematical ignoramus or a hypocrite.

I had a problem like this t(only it was ants, poison, a couple of food crops...) in a college level 300 class and it was a several week group project.

Up until grade 7 we were in different locations such that there would only be at most 50 kids in the same grade where they could be grouped together

Back when I did training (admittedly for adults), I quickly learned that the hardest classes to teach were the ones with the widest differences in ability. Give me a class of all below average, all average, or all above average, great! I could adjust the pace, material and way of covering it, etc. to account for a particular class and it'd work well for all the students.

Give me a mixed class of 1/3 below average, 1/3 average, and 1/3 above average, and it's only going to work well for one of them. I can slow down things so the bottom can learn and keep up and bore the upper 2/3rds. Teach to the average and the bottom will fall further and further behind, while the top remain bored. Teach to the top and the bottom 2/3rds fall behind.

Every teacher/trainer I've ever talked about this with agreed; a widely mixed in ability class in anything is by far the hardest to teach so that everyone is satisfied.

Actually guys, the answer the question is easy. It’s “whales good+capitalism bad=save the whales”. Extra credit will be given for any drawings showing Green Peace attacking whaling ships.

Seriously, even good school systems suck at teaching math. The American classroom lacks discipline at all levels. The teachers lack the tools needed to get the kids’ attention and the support of the administration to force real consequences on under performers. I have been in classrooms where the antics of one child can suck up the bulk of the teacher’s time patience.

The solution is to supplement math at home like we did. It doesn’t matter if your child is getting A’s in elementary school math, I can promise you they are not getting enough weekly practice. If you can’t teach at home. Kumon is the best option. Don’t let your child fall by the wayside. This world is increasingly technocratic and those with skills will do well, those without will most assuredly be left behind.

Crid, teachers are often required to join the unions in order to work.

Also in the US it is less of a teacher's union and more of a government school administrators union. In places like California you pretty much have to pay in to keep your job but as a teacher you certainly aren't getting any representation out of the union.

Yeah I had that in MA because I wasn't fully certified, only partially (left MA before I could get fully certified). I was heavily pressured to join the union even though they wouldn't do anything for me. I did, which in retrospect was dumb.

> teachers are often required to
> join the unions in order to work.

I'm saying such people shouldn't be hired. In Kridmo Kingdom —a realm of wonder, enchantment and decency— public employee unions are forbidden by an Amendment to the United States Constitution.

I joined a union once. Nobody put a gun to my head. They never did shit for me, and when it was time to move on, I didn't bother to quit. Those people are organized crime, Lenona.

It was NicoleK, but still.

https://www.city-journal.org/keep-the-sat-and-act