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Architect of 'Equity-Based Algebra' Accused of Fraud

AP Photo/Ron Harris

Math is racist. I've done a number of posts on it, as have my colleagues. I remember one lively debate on Twitter with teachers, educators, and professors arguing that two plus two can equal five. We've done posts about how showing your work is imposing "whiteness." We wrote about a Boston-area school that had eliminated advanced math in middle school in the name of equity. Other schools ruled that all students would follow the same curriculum until their junior year, when those who wanted would be allowed to take advanced math courses. Seattle's K-12 "Math Ethnic Studies Framework" had as one of its themes the "Power of Oppression." I did a post last year about California's adoption of a new math framework emphasizing "equity and cultural responsiveness." Sarah Schwartz wrote for Education Week:

The California framework encourages teachers in this work on two fronts. First, the collaborative, inquiry-based approach is meant to support students from all backgrounds to find a sense of belonging in math classrooms and to engage their participation in meaningful conversations about math. Second, math content itself can help students use math to examine inequities and address important issues in their lives and communities.

Such an orientation toward social justice has faced sharp criticism from some members of the math community. In an open letter in 2021, over a thousand signatories—many of them math and science professors and business professionals—outlined pieces of a prior draft of the framework that they said would politicize the subject in a “potentially disastrous way.”

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