San Francisco middle schools will teach Algebra I again this fall — though concerns about implementation continue amid a shortage of qualified teachers.
The 6-1 vote by the San Francisco Unified School District board Tuesday followed a decadelong battle over eighth graders' access to higher-level math courses and a larger debate over academic opportunity and equity in math performance.
Stanford researchers found last year that large racial and ethnic gaps in advanced math enrollment persisted even after the policy change.
Most math majors I know ended up in some form of back end (read: legitimate) tech job. Math is so damn useful as a way of proving out one's ability to turn a block of abstract marble into a statue given minimal information, and its a shame that they don't communicate that directly to students.