What reformers are doing to urban kids (or 'it's terrible what they are doing to these schools')
This was written by Natalie Hopkinson, a fellow of the Interactivity Foundation and a contributing editor to The Root, a daily online magazine devoted to the black experience. She is co-author of he co-author of "Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation." This post first appeared on The Root. By: Natalie Hopkinson Something wasn't right at the high school that Darwin Bridgers' son attends, so he sat in on the class to see for himself. All morning long, the instructor at the Washington, D.C., charter school pointed to a list of ground rules, a detailed list of rewards and punishments posted on a wall near the front of the class filled with black and Latino students. Then the students filled out worksheets. That's how it went: rewards and punishments, then worksheets. No instruction, just worksheets. At the end of the class, Bridgers, who works as
Math class: What’s the right order?
In what order should students take math? Should Geometry come before or after Algebra 2? Here are some of the ways schools are working through the issue. Below are responses school counselors around the country to a request for information about the order that high school students take math classes. The query was issued by Jean Crowder, director of the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) Program at Sacramento State University and University of California at Davis. The responses were sent to her via the e-list of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. She gave me permission to publish the responses (keeping them anonymous), which I found revealing about how schools experiment with math. The original query to counselors from Crowder: "I am working with a local high school site that is considering altering the enrollment/completion order for mathematics for students. This possible new completion order would be as follows: