The San Francisco Chronicle – Jill Tucker
“Hundreds of San Francisco parents — worried that their kids won’t get into the best colleges — are waging a war against a school district policy that keeps students from speeding through math courses ahead of their peers. The change is part of the shift to the new Common Core curriculum, including a new sequence of math courses that shifts algebra I from eighth grade to ninth grade. But the battle isn’t a new one. At the core of it is the age-old argument about tracking students into classes based on a higher or lower level of academic ability, often separating white, Asian and wealthy students from their black, Latino and poor peers. San Francisco school officials want to keep all students together in math until junior year, when advanced students are permitted to surge ahead by consolidating algebra II and precalculus courses. Parents want those consolidated courses in middle school, which would mean their children would be ahead of their peers when they start high school in ninth grade. “Our idea was let’s give students a rigorous, rich math experience as long as we can in a heterogeneous situation before we bifurcate the system,” said Jim Ryan, the district’s executive director for science, technology, engineering and math education.”(more)