New math plan aims to keep students learning at the same level, equity

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California’s new math framework aims to keep students learning at the same level, in the name of equity. However, critics say this would discourage some students from advancing ahead.

For example, critics predict that students who are gifted in math may be prevented from enrolling in more advanced courses like algebra in middle school and calculus in high school.

The framework is presented as a teacher’s guide to instructing students using the latest research and resources. But one teacher and co-founder of a grassroots group says the new guidelines oppose best practices.

“What [they] used to take, for example, in eighth grade, they would now be taking in ninth grade. So it’s actually slowing down the progression of math for our students,” Lori Meyers, co-founder of Educators for Quality and Equality, told NTD Television.

The framework assumes that high-achieving students who are labeled as “gifted” are taught differently and would be pressured to keep that label. It also states that this creates racial divisions.

The language in the framework is typical of critical race theory, an offshoot of Marxism that views society as being divided into a class of “oppressors” (white people) and an “oppressed” class (everyone else).

The framework uses A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction as a resource to guide teaching practices to support Black, Latinx, and multilingual students in grades 6–8. It offers “deconstructing racism in mathematics” and “critical approaches to dismantling white supremacy in math classrooms by making visible the toxic characteristics of white supremacy culture.”

In a statement challenging the proposed framework, the California Association for the Gifted said, “Failure to provide historically underrepresented groups access to gifted services and advanced mathematics opportunities will further create a racial division in STEM fields.”

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