{"id":2911,"date":"2025-06-24T13:20:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T20:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theothermath.com\/?p=2911"},"modified":"2025-06-24T13:20:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T20:20:06","slug":"access-to-meaningful-mathematics-is-a-civil-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theothermath.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/24\/access-to-meaningful-mathematics-is-a-civil-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Access to meaningful mathematics is a civil right"},"content":{"rendered":"

The vision of our math team at the Merced County Office of Education comes straight from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics:<\/span><\/p>\n

Every students is “enthused by mathematics, sees the value and beauty of mathematics, and is empowered by the opportunities mathematics affords.”<\/span><\/p>\n

In this post, I want to focus on the last part of our vision “empowered by the opportunities mathematics affords.”<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ll start with an experience I had many years ago when I was a math coach. The secretary of our team of instructional coaches introduced me to a gentleman named Alex (not his real name). He was a father of two beautiful children and was working on a temporary contract for PG&E digging the trenches for the power lines and power posts. Unfortunately, Alex’s temporary contract was nearing completion and he would either need to pass the general skills test to become a permanent employee or PG&E would have to let him go.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though Alex was more than capable of doing the work at PG&E he was really struggling to pass the mathematics portion of the skills test.<\/span><\/p>\n

During our numerous tutoring sessions, I learned that Alex experienced a lack luster mathematics education. Lots of worksheets. Lots of mindless notetaking. In high school he was actively persuaded by school counselors to stop taking math after the state minimum of two years. After all, they reasoned, he had no desire to go to college or work in any high-skill trade.<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn’t until 15 years later that Alex realized he had been systematically denied access to an important civil right: mathematics. Now, 15 years after the fact, Alex was literally being prevented from a good high-paying job simply because he was not provided a meaningful math learning opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Folks\u2026there are many Alexes out there. People who are denied access to meaningful, rigorous mathematics and, as a consequence, lose out on good job opportunities and access to post-high school education.<\/span><\/p>\n

From\u00a0EdTrust<\/a><\/span>,<\/span><\/p>\n

“The math skills students gain as early as preschool may predict student achievement through age the of 15, and the math courses students take in middle school have implications for whether they graduate high school and how they perform in college and the workforce. Mathematics success is a pathway students walk from their earliest years and throughout their careers.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Many students, particularly Black and Latino students and students from low-income backgrounds experience less-than-stellar math instruction, from the least experienced teachers, and are often actively counseled out of taking more than the bare minimum in math courses. This denial of access to meaningful mathematics follows the students long into their adulthood impacting their ability to get, and maintain, high paying jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n

We see this playing out throughout our own Merced County.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the\u00a02023-2024 CAASPP results<\/a><\/span>, only 36% of our 3rd graders met or exceeded the grade level standards. This means we are failing nearly two-thirds of our students in 3rd grade!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The data get worse for each grade level with fewer students meeting or exceeding the grade level standards until finally bottoming out at 11th grade in which only 10% of our 11th graders met or exceeded the grade level standards.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only 30% of our high school graduates have met the\u00a0UC\/CSU requirements<\/a><\/span>, meaning our educational system. Obviously not all students want to attend UC\/CSU after high school, but \u2013 like Alex \u2013 they do want high-paying jobs in order to care for their spouses and children. 30% means too many of our graduating students are entering a workforce ill-prepared for taking the necessary exams that make the difference between a temporary job and a permanent one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mathematics is s civil right. It is one, like reading, that ALL students should be able to freely access.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is our role to ensure all students benefit from mathematics and are empowered by the opportunities mathematics affords.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The vision of our math team at the Merced County Office of Education comes straight from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics: Every students is “enthused by mathematics, sees the value and beauty of mathematics, and is empowered by the opportunities mathematics affords.” In this post, I want to focus on the last part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[117],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theothermath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theothermath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theothermath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theothermath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theothermath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2911"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theothermath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2915,"href":"https:\/\/theothermath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911\/revisions\/2915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theothermath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theothermath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theothermath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theothermath.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}