Michael Higgins: Ontario's math test wasn't racist — the court was - "There was always something self-righteous, paternalistic and bigoted in the bid to declare Ontario’s math test racist. If Black and Indigenous teacher candidates could not pass what was essentially a high-school math test then obviously, went the thinking, it was a racist exam and had to be done away with. Except, it turns out that minority candidates are just as good at passing such a test as white people. It turns out that Black and Indigenous candidates have the same capacity as others when it comes to understanding math. It turns out that the attempt to save Black and Indigenous teacher candidates from a “racist” exam was not only misguided but almost certainly condescending. Following a legal battle, Ontario’s Court of Appeal ruled Tuesday that the math test introduced in 2021 was not discriminatory and was not a barrier to minority candidates entering the teaching profession. It was Ontario’s Divisional Court that ruled in December 2021 that the province’s then new Mathematics Proficiency Test (MPT) was discriminatory... The MPT was introduced by the Ontario government after it saw a marked decline in elementary students’ math scores between 2015 and 2019. In an effort to improve student scores, teacher candidates were required to pass a math exam before obtaining a teaching certificate. Even before the MPT was introduced it underwent stringent analysis by Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO). The EQAO reviewed the test for bias and sensitivity to equity issues as well as factoring in identity and social justice concerns. From the very beginning, people were going out of their way to make sure this test was fair to all candidates."
Sadly, the reason the appeal succeeded was that "minorities" weren't really hurt, rather than maths tests being reasonable. If disparate impact is a valid reason to strike down a requirement, why have degree or competence requirements?
There Is No Such Thing as "White" Math - "'Math, with its seemingly unbiased tools — 2 + 2 always equals 4 — has presented a problem for an ideological movement that sees any inequality of outcome as evidence of systemic bias. The problem cannot be that some kids are better at math, or that some teachers are better at teaching it. Like so much else, the basic woke argument against math is that it is inherently racist and needs to be made antiracist. That is accomplished by undermining the notion of right and wrong answers, by getting rid of the expectation that students show their work, by referring to mathematical testing tools as racist, and by doing away with accelerated math classes. If that sounds like a caricature, I urge you to read this whole document, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation'...
In my position as a professor of mathematics at Princeton, I have witnessed the decline of universities and cultural institutions as they have embraced political ideology at the expense of rigorous scholarship. Until recently — this past summer, really — I had naively thought that the STEM disciplines would be spared from this ideological takeover. I was wrong. Attempts to “deconstruct” mathematics, deny its objectivity, accuse it of racial bias, and infuse it with political ideology have become more and more common — perhaps, even, at your child’s elementary school. This phenomenon is part of what has been dubbed “The Great Awokening.” As others have explained powerfully, the ideology incubated in academia, where it indoctrinated plenty of bright minds. It then migrated, through those true believers, into our important cultural, religious and political institutions. Now it is affecting some of the country’s most prominent businesses. Unlike the traditional totalitarianism practiced by former communist countries, like the Romania I grew up in, this version is soft. It enforces its ideology not by jailing dissenters or physically eliminating them, but by social shaming, mob punishment, guilt by association, and coerced speech. When it comes to education, I believe the woke ideology is even more harmful than old-fashioned communism. Communism had a strong sense of objective reality anchored in the belief that humans are capable of discovering universal truths. It forcefully asserted, in fact, the absolute truth of dialectic materialism, as revealed by its founders Marx, Engels and Lenin. Communist ideology held science and mathematics in the highest regard, even though it often distorted the former for doctrinal reasons. Mathematics was largely immune to ideological pressure, and thus thrived in most communist countries. Being skilled in math was a source of great societal prestige for school children. And it was a great equalizer: those from socioeconomically disadvantaged families had a chance to compete on equal footing with those from privileged ones... Nothing in the history and current practice of mathematics justifies the notion that it is in any way different or dependent on the particular race or ethnic group engaged in it... Schools throughout the world teach the same basic body of mathematics. They differ only by the methodology and intensity with which they instruct students. It is precisely this universality of math — together with the extraordinary ability of American universities to reward hard work and talent — that allowed me, and so many other young scientists and mathematicians, to come to this country and achieve success beyond our wildest dreams. The idea that focusing on getting the “right answer” is now considered among some self-described progressives a form of bias or racism is offensive and extraordinarily dangerous. The entire study of mathematics is based on clearly formulated definitions and statements of fact. If this were not so, bridges would collapse, planes would fall from the sky, and bank transactions would be impossible... the woke approach to mathematics is particularly poisonous to those it pretends to want to help... Through its set of well-defined, culturally unbiased, unambiguous set of rules, mathematics gives smart kids the potential to be, at least in this respect, on equal footing with all others. They can stand out by simply finding the right answers to questions with objective results."
US educators slam math workbook that claims it's racist to ask students to get the right answer - "Educators around the country have come out to condemn a 'Dismantling Racism in Mathematics' program which tells teachers not to push students to find the correct answers to math problems because doing so promotes white supremacy. The program is centered around a workbook for teachers entitled 'A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction' which asserts that America's education system – even mathematics instruction – reinforces the dominant power structures of white colonizers. Grading students, asking them to show their work, requiring participation and even pushing them to get the right answer are depicted in the workbook as harmful to minorities. The workbook was created by Oakland, California-based advocacy group The Education Trust-West under its 'Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction' initiative, which is funded through a $1million grant from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. So far, the workbook is being used by school districts in Georgia, Ohio, California and Oregon... many critics of the workbook say it actually reinforces negative stereotypes and drives wedges between students according to their race. 'The workbook's ultimate message is clear: Black kids are bad at math, so why don't we just excuse them from really learning it,' Erec Smith, a professor of rhetoric and composition at York College of Pennsylvania and co-founder of Free Black Thought, told The 74 Million... it encourages teachers to have more than one answer for math problems, refrain from calling on students to answer problems for the class, relate math to minority students' experiences and provide examples of how math is used by political revolutionaries. 'Identify and challenge the ways that math is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views.' The workbook reads... But supporters of the workbook say that its message is being taken out of context. They argue that its teachings are more about making math more relatable and understandable to every student in the classroom."
Apparently lots of kids are anti-racist activists, so they can only relate to that sort of poison
Fox News guest claims the "hyper-woke" believe in “a world where Black people don't have to do math” - "John McWhorter, a professor of linguistics at Columbia University, made several baffling claims Friday evening on Fox News' self-titled primetime show, including that "social justice" means, in part, that "Black people don't have to do math.""
Trust Salon to run cover for this
Parents rage as top NYC school to end advanced math program - "A top Manhattan middle school sent parents into a rage when it announced that it was junking accelerated math classes — and agreed to hold meetings first amid the backlash. In what some families ripped as the Department of Education’s latest smothering of advanced academics, Lab Middle School for Collaborative Studies principal Megan Adams emailed parents that “we will no longer have leveled math courses at Lab Middle School.”... Former Lab teacher Maggie Feurtado, who founded the program roughly a decade ago before retiring this year, said she was “simply appalled”... “This is all in the name of equity,” she told The Post. “And it’s likely coming from above. But it’s misguided. Having everyone in the same class hurts everybody.”... Feurtado, who grew up on the Lower East Side and attended city public schools, said the uniform instructional approach fails to address the needs of both advanced and struggling students. “It’s like not allowing any kids in a daycare to walk until all of them learn to walk,” she said. “It doesn’t work. Advanced kids don’t want to belabor the same material. And the kids who need the extra attention won’t get what they need.”... Parents said Lab’s announcement further cemented a notion that DOE schools are stanching academic opportunities for advanced city children... Another mom said parental disillusionment was spiking to new levels... She added that affluent parents will simply find new ways to provide for more demanding coursework for their kids — or just decamp to private schools. “Those who can’t afford that will be stuck,” she said."
Will maths succumb to the woke wave? - "When do you come to realise that a movement has made a clean sweep through the culture? It isn’t the moment when the disciplines that you know succumb to it. It isn’t when the ideas that you are familiar with suffer from the contamination. Rather it is when subjects you took to be serious, solid and immune from such things end up spouting exactly the same degraded mantras as everyone else... Surely, we naively assumed, engineers would not find any utility in constructing a bridge along relativist lines. Scientists would find no purpose in “problematising” their studies, and mathematicians wouldn’t be concerned whether their equation answers enforce some “hierarchy”. So those of us still optimistic about the water-tightness of serious studies look with especial dismay on the developing contamination of the social sciences seeping into the sciences. And our optimism will be somewhat dented by the recent news that maths in Seattle is going the way of everything else. As readers of my latest book will know, I regard the whole Northwestern United States to be among the global hubs of our present derangements. Oregon is the source of the “food wars” in which people are only meant to cook or consume the produce cooked and consumed by their racial antecedents, and its largest city Portland is the hub of a fascist movement that presents itself as only having to do fascistic things because it is trying to defeat an otherwise non-present fascism. So the only thing less surprising than the State of Oregon deciding to do something inconceivable is when its neighbour Washington agrees to do something equally crazed. And on this occasion Seattle has beaten even Portland in the local derangement Olympics... as the Seattle Public Schools guidelines for maths education show, students in Seattle schools will be invited to consider questions such as the following: “Where does Power and Oppression show up in our math experience?” Note, incidentally, the fact that “Power” and “Oppression” get the full upper-case first letter treatment. Like The Queen or The President. A real, living, major presence – unlike “math” of course. Other questions demonstrate an equal intellectual deficit. “How is math manipulated to allow inequality and oppression to exist?” and “How has math been used to resist and liberate people and communities of color from oppression?” Just one of the sub-questions that students will be invited to consider here is “How can we use math to measure the impact of activism?” Because, of course, what matters most in this world is engaging in impactful activism. Elsewhere students will be invited to consider the following question, “Can you suggest resolutions to oppressive mathematical practices?” It brings to mind the experience that a doctor friend of mine had some years ago. A new layer of bureaucracy had been brought into the National Health Service and all NHS doctors were having to answer a new range of questions about a range of matters, one of which was “Have you everywhere and at all times behaved in an ethical manner?” My friend pointed out that he would only answer the question if the questioner answered two questions in turn. The first was “Who would honestly ask such a question?” and the second was “Who would honestly answer such a question?” Eventually, after some back and forth, the questioner said “Could you just say ‘yes’, so that we can move on”. Thus, of course, inviting a lie in response to a question on ethical behaviour. The Seattle school board’s questions have a similar dynamic at play. The cleverer students will realise that there is a “correct” answer to the questions, whether or not those answers are true – as there is to every other question of our age. They’ll work out that the answer to every question posed by the Seattle authorities will always and everywhere be the same: “more diversity”. But the problem is not with the smarter students, who like most smart people will always find a way to navigate around the lies and dogmas of their age, but the less intelligent applicants, whose one shot at education the Seattle authorities are meant to be overseeing. A rather basic knowledge of maths would help such people and come in very handy in their lives: in ordering their finances, and working out their day-to-day interactions with others. If they do not pick up these basics at school, then it is highly unlikely that they will pick them up at some later stage, the education system offering the best chance anyone ever has to surpass their forebears. It should, in theory, also offer them the chance to escape the ideological straitjackets of their time. How disturbing it is to learn that instead, even in a discipline like maths, students will be cocooned and imprisoned in the lies of their age rather than being given the chance to escape them."
Worse outcomes for minorities will just be blamed on racism, which means even more liberal dogma is needed
Outrage as woke school board axes advanced math classes for being too white and Asian - "Parents in a Massachusetts school district are expressing their disappointment over a years-old decision to eliminate advanced placement for math in middle school. Cambridge Public Schools began phasing out advanced math courses in grades six through eight around 2017, when district officials noticed sharp racial disparities in the program. Students who were being placed in the advanced math track were overwhelmingly white and Asian, while the lower-level courses were filled primarily with black and Latino students... none of the district's four middle schools offer Algebra I, which some parents say is actually exacerbating inequality by limiting advanced math to those who can afford private tutors... The parents expressed concerns that, without Algebra 1 in middle school, their children would be forced to cram a compressed math course load in high school to reach advanced courses such as calculus... It is not the first time that Cambridge Public Schools, located in a wealthy and left-leaning town that is home to Harvard University, has made headlines. In 2017, a CPS librarian publicly rejected a donation of Dr. Seuss children's books from then-First Lady Melania Trump, calling the books 'racist' and 'cliched'... In a blog post the school librarian called Dr. Seuss a 'tired and worn ambassador for children's literature' and said his illustrations are 'steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes.'"
Weird. We're repeatedly told that liberals didn't try to cancel Dr. Seuss
It’s Time to Start Treating High School Math Like Football - "American high schools excel at nurturing football talent. If the future of American economic and military might rested on our country’s ability to produce quality football players, the United States would have nothing to fear from Chinese great-power rivalry. But at the same time, American public schools don’t force anyone to play football. If you’re talented and want to play, there is a strong incentive to do so, since accomplished players get rewarded with social status and gain an advantage in college admissions. But those of us who never play football have other paths to success, and are not considered failures just because we didn’t master the game. I propose that we treat high-school math like football, whereby we encourage and train those with talent, but neither denigrate nor fret over non-participating students. This approach would not only improve math education for those naturally gifted in the subject but also help to save advanced math programs from the progressive reformers who control the commanding heights of American education... To improve math education, we need to better tailor the difficulty level of math instruction to each student, which happens to some degree when schools offer different levels of math. But when you do that, you often get classes whose racial composition deviates from that of the school as a whole. i.e., The racial gap gets wider. An advanced math class whose composition is racially unbalanced constitutes a visible symptom of educational outcome inequality. And the easiest way to erase such a symptom is to eliminate the advanced math class itself. Yes, if you put everyone in the same math course, some groups will on average get lower grades, but grades are mostly kept secret, whereas class composition is out in the open. Furthermore, putting everyone in the same math course will cause the top students to learn less math than they otherwise would, which is bad for the student, but (perversely) a boon for social justice, since it lowers inequality between groups. For the country as a whole, of course, retarding the math education of the most talented tier of students is catastrophic, as it reduces economic growth and, indirectly, military power. But then again, many of the same progressives who seek to level academic performance also are inclined to downplay the value of economic growth and Western military might. (The richer a country is, the more fossil fuels it consumes.) Moreover, race has become a more or less all-consuming fixation in progressive policy circles, so it seems inevitable that progressive objections to the very idea of separating students into different math classes according to their ability will only become more strenuous over time... we indulge the myth that there is no such thing as a gifted child. As the New York Times reports, California’s school reforms are built around this conceit explicitly. Everyone of common sense knows that this conceit is untrue. But if you find yourself ideologically compelled to profess belief in it (as many progressives are), you will also be required to profess belief in the blank-slate notion that, since everyone has equal natural talent at math, then any group-based statistical variations (say, between Asians and whites at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia, for instance) must be rooted in discrimination or privilege (and so should not be accepted)."
Even if we ignore maths disparities, liberals will just fixate on others
