Algebra is the reason most Los Angeles students drop out of school, reports the Los Angeles Times.
In the fall of 2004, 48,000 ninth-graders took beginning algebra; 44% flunked, nearly twice the failure rate as in English. Seventeen percent finished with Ds.. . . Among those who repeated the class in the spring, nearly three-quarters flunked again.
The school district could have seen this coming if officials had looked at the huge numbers of high school students failing basic math.
Passing algebra and geometry has been a district requirement since 2003, a state requirement since 2004. The story implies the requirement is just another fad. But the real problem seems to be that students are enrolled again and again in the same classes they failed before. They give up and zone out.
Only seven of 39 students brought their textbooks. Several had no paper or pencils. One sat for the entire period with his backpack on his shoulders, tapping his desk with a finger.. . . (Teacher George) Seidel once brokered multimillion-dollar business deals but left a 25-year law career, hoping to find a more fulfilling job and satisfy an old desire to teach. Nothing, however, prepared him for period five.
“I got through a year of Vietnam,” he said, “so I tell myself every day I can get through 53 minutes of fifth period…. I don’t know if I am making a difference with a single kid.”
Seidel did not appear to make a difference with Gabriela Ocampo. She failed his class in the fall of 2004 — her sixth and final semester of Fs in algebra.
But Gabriela didn’t give Seidel much of a chance; she skipped 62 of 93 days that semester.
The problem starts in elementary school, when many students never master the basics. They’re passed on.
At Cal State Northridge, the largest supplier of new teachers to Los Angeles Unified, 35% of future elementary school instructors earned Ds or Fs in their first college-level math class last year.Some of these students had already taken remedial classes that reviewed high school algebra and geometry.
At Downtown College Prep, the San Jose charter school that’s the subject of my book, ninth graders who are more than two years behind in math skills take a “numeracy” course to brush up on the basics while also taking algebra. Most flunk algebra the first time they take it but pass in summer school or 10th grade. They must complete algebra, geometry and advanced algebra/trig with a C or better by the end of 12th grade. Some need five years of high school to do it; the pay-off is college eligibility. For LA high schools to keep students in algebra year after year without teaching basic math skills is ludicrous.
The story is part of a LA Times’ series on drop outs. Looking at a 4,000-student high school, the Times estimates 53 percent of students who enrolled as ninth graders graduated in four years from a high school or alternative program, with another 9 percent hoping to finish in five years. By transferring the worst students to alternative programs, schools can raise their test scores without raising the official drop-out rate. But less than a third of “alternative” students earn a diploma or certificate.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants to take over the city’s schools, emulating Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.
Update: Darren and Coach Brown disagree on the need for all students to learn algebra. In Silicon Valley, many employers say they want workers to know algebra (and statistics); colleges want algebra. The reason students can’t learn algebra is that they lack basic math skills. Not to mention a work ethic.
A little additional information about Birmingham High:
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http://www.birminghamhs.com/
Math Head of Department: Carlos Arevalo
email: BHSMrArevalo@aol.com
School ID: 1931047
Birmingham SR. High:
CST ELA Scores:
9th Grade: Basic
10th Grade: Basic
11th Grade: Basic
Parents with College Degrees:
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9th Grade: 15%
10th Grade: 19%
11th Grade: 23%
Birmingham In “Program Improvement” Status (failed to meet annual accademic growth goals)
Statewide Female CST Algebra.I Results: 83% Score Basic, Below Basic or Far Below Basic.
The header for this article reads in part, “Because they can’t pass algebra, thousands of students are denied diplomas.” It seems to me that the students who do not receive diplomas are not being “denied” said diplomas, but they in fact have failed to earn them. Failure to learn this lesson at an early age only reinforces an entitlement ethic and sets these young people up for failure and bitterness as they progress from high school to the working world. A diploma that means nothing is worth exactly the same, nothing.
I happen to agree with JoeH, the diploma (i.e. - High School, College), or professional degree (R.N., M.D., J.D. LLD, P.E., etc) is something which is EARNED, not given away. We always have this problem in Nevada, where we have had exit examinations, and credit requirements for years.
When the calander gets towards the end of the school year here in Nevada, we always have a bunch of students and their parental units complaining that the exit examination isn’t fair (never mind that it requires to get 60-65% of the questions correct in math to pass the exit exam).
In addition, if a student is credit or coursework deficient, there is no way they will be able to graduate with their classmates on time (and it’s impossible when a student is absent 2/3rds of a semester). When I was in my final year of high school (1980-1981), our district instituted a absentee policy, and on the 19th absence, a student LOST all credit for the semester, and in a typical semester, you could earn 3 credits (1 class = 1/2 credit a semester), 6 classes = 3 credits). As a result of this policy, and parental notification issues, the absentee rate dropped dramtically (except for those students who just didn’t CARE about their education, and were destined to drop out anyways).
How the LAUSD even allows a student to miss 60 days in a semester is completely insane, but the old saying goes: You can take a horse to the water trough, but you cannot make a horse drink the water… (sigh)
Don’t forget that CA is still a little uncertain about how to deal with students who fail the Exit Exam six times in a row.
The general premise is that if you can’t pass this test, you don’t deserve a HS diploma. This has created a lot of dissent, which might not make the papers in other states like it does here in CA.
I was just going to refer to your post–then I got started and couldn’t stop! So I quoted from it extensively, giving full credit of course!
http://rightontheleftcoast.blogspot.com/2006/01/graduating-from-high-school.html
This L.A. Times series is very good — if very long — but both it and a recent story from the Sacramento Bee about kids likely to fail the exit exam leave me with the impression that a lot of kids plainly don’t give a s*** and that’s why they’re failing.
That’s no surprise. Heck, I didnt’ give a s*** at their age, but I just haven’t a lick of sympathy for some of these chair-warmers.
On the other hand, our astute host is correct that simply making the kids take algebra over and over and over again sounds a lot like the old definition of insanity.
Your book sounds very interesting; I will have to check it out. The LA school system sounds a lot like Cleveland (OH) public schools.
Perhaps more states should look to the example of New York (at least while NY still has a Regents’ Diploma). Give students who show basic literacy (and numeracy) a “basic skills” diploma — showing, for example, that they could take courses in a community college but likely only remedial ones at least at first. Give students who pass a college prep curriculum a “college prep” diploma.
And BTW, give students with the basic diploma the option of taking high school coursework in the future to upgrade to a college prep diploma.
Here is a stat that you won’t see. It gives you a real good look at the absentee problem.
Here in Prince George’s County, Maryland, at my high school, these are the following stats for GRADUATING SENIORS last year:
90% have >5 days absent
71% have >10 days absent
40% have >20 days absent
We are fobidden from failing a student due to absence alone, and we MUST provide all make-up work for all students regardless of the reason for the absence.
Here in my county students are allowed an unlimited number of absences.
We even have our admin changing grades to pass students without informing teachers of the change. Teachers in my county have no legal right to protect the grades they assign. The admin have the legal right to change anything on a transcript to the point that they change grades all the way back to the freshman year for a senior to graduate this year. This happens every year.
to its credit, the reporter opened with the correct stat: comparing incoming 9th graders with graduation 4 years later. That stat is eye-opening at many schools: some enterprising writer (academic, joursalist, blog or combination thereof) can do that systematically for California by virtue of the state data website http://data1.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/ These insights completely reversed the debate in launching school changes in our county.
The writer also did take the dodge of “students were at different schools” which ignores that likely fact that students transferred into Birmingham as well. The easy way to finesse that is to look at district-wide numbers since thosae transfers are the most common. The detailed legwork would be to look at the “black box”: transfers in/out/up and other
Here in Texas, we do have the exit exam that must be passed to graduate; until recently, it covered math skills only up through 8th grade. Now it covers high school algebra and geometry.
I taught 2 sections of “low-level” algebra last semester; we have an algebra program designed for the weaker student that goes at half the speed of the regular program. In my class there were basically two groups of kids - those who wanted to learn but were weak in math for one reason or another, and those who could care less about learning and were at school only to socialize. The ones who wanted to learn were, for the most part, successful, but got very frustrated with the ones who caused discipline problems in class. I would venture a guess that 60-80% of my class was ADHD, and since I deal with those issues at home as a mom, I know how it can affect learning. Some of the kids who do not pass the first or second time finally grow up and realize that there is life after high school, and end up at the alternative campus to finish their diploma. Many of the rest will end up dropping out because neither they nor their parents put any creedence in the need for a diploma.
Also, Texas does have 2 types of diplomas, the basic plan, and the recommended plan. If you plan to go to college, you better pursue the recommended plan. When Texas decided that all 9th graders would take Algebra I, I got a little miffed. Not every 9th grader is ready mentally for the abstractness of algebra, so our school developed our way around the problem, the “low-level” class. Now they say that all students must attempt Algebra II before being allowed to dropback and take the basic plan’s 3rd year course, Math Applications. Now I’m mad…just another reason to water down the curriculum or have a room full of kids who are in over their head and will spend an entire year not even trying to learn.