In 1989 I began my teaching career at Roosevelt Junior High School in Oakland where I taught 8th and 9th grade mathematics. I was completely ill-equipped to teach students who were just a few years younger than me. Chronic-absenteeism was so high, my class rosters were in the mid-40’s so as to ensure a daily […]
UPDATE 4/17/2025: Read this post. ORIGINAL follows… In September of 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1705 which would have fully phased in by Fall, 2025. AB 1705 would have created rules that mostly prevent colleges from offering remedial courses such as Trigonometry and Pre-Calculus. Essentially, AB 1705 would have made Calculus the lowest possible course for students with a STEM-related […]
Preamble: Many years ago I first read a report called The Opportunity Myth. Its findings were eye-opening and I vowed to apply the findings in the report to my work in Merced County. For the past six years I have done exactly that…with varying degrees of success. I am unwavering in my belief that the […]
Let’s start with the TL;DR in hopes that you will actually read this blog post: Moving forward CALCULUS is the lowest math course that can be offered to students entering with a STEM-related academic goal. Do I have your attention? Read on… In the spirit of vertical alignment, I thought I would share some important […]