Ginia Bellafante has an excellent article in the New York Times about the dilemma of poor and immigrant students who strive to achieve success in community college.
She selects a student, Vladimir de Jesus, to illustrate the obstacles in his path. He wants to be an art teacher. He has a young daughter and has to work to pay his tuition and the cost of living.
She writes:
As a community college student, Mr. de Jesus is both prototype and outlier. The majority of community college students come from low-income families, and many arrive at school, as he did, with competing obligations (29 percent of community college students in the United States are parents), as well as the need for extensive remediation. The widely held impression that community colleges are essentially vocational is inaccurate. Data released by the American Association of Community Colleges in September indicated that most of the associate degrees awarded in 2012 were given in the liberal arts and sciences, outnumbering those for nursing, say, or marketing.
In recent years, mounting concerns about inequality have fixated on the need for greater economic diversity at elite colleges, but the interest has tended to obscure the fact that the vast majority of high school students — including the wealthiest — will never go to Stanford or the University of Chicago or Yale. Even if each of U.S. News and World Report’s 25 top-ranked universities committed to turning over all of its spots to poor students, the effort would serve fewer than 218,000 of them. Community colleges have 7.7 million students enrolled, 45 percent of all undergraduates in the country.
Philanthropists and hedge fund managers don’t care about community colleges, despite their oft-proclaimed dedication to poor kids. The community colleges serve mostly children from low-income families, but they don’t attract much funding from the wealthy who give millions to charters schools and their alma maters.
Bellafante writes:
Among individual donors, community colleges ignite little charitable impulse. An endowment fund begun at LaGuardia in 2003 has raised $11 million, of which $8 million has been spent. To put those sums in perspective, Prep for Prep, the organization started in the 1970s to help channel bright, disadvantaged New York City children into top private schools and ultimately the Ivy League, raised $3 million on a single night in June when it held its annual gala.
This shows, perhaps, that the Wall Street hedge funders and the philanthropists shower their millions on the strivers and the winners, not on the strugglers and stragglers like Vladimir de Jesus.
One especially large obstacle, for Vladimir and other students: the algebra course. He can’t pass the algebra course. He has taken it again and again. He can’t pass it.
Mr. de Jesus began the winter semester auspiciously; he received an A for an early personal essay. In addition to his English and art classes, he was taking a remedial course, Math 96, which is algebra-based and focuses on linear and quadratic equations.
Passing this class, which teaches math that most affluent children study in eighth or ninth grade, is required for graduation and the ascent to four-year programs. But at community colleges across the country, the basic math requirement has been a notorious hindrance to advancement. More than 60 percent of all students entering community colleges must take what are called developmental math courses, according to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, but more than 70 percent of those students never complete the classes, leaving them unable to obtain their degrees.
Mr. de Jesus was taking Math 96 for the third time last spring, having failed it twice. On one attempt he had fallen short by just a few points on the final exam; on another, he did not bother to show up for the exam at all because he was already failing. But in math, too, he had started the spring semester well, with grades in the 80s and 90s on the initial exams, his professor, Yelba Gutierrez, an adjunct at the time, told me.
When Mr. de Jesus came to school, he was present and engaged. In his English class, he typically offered observations that were sharper than those of the other students. But as the semester wore on, he had trouble getting to his classes on time — or at all….
“This whole thing with math just hits your spirit in the wrong way,” Mr. de Jesus remarked recently. “It demolishes your spirit. You become lazy.”
When I conveyed his sentiment to Dr. Mellow, LaGuardia’s president, she agreed and praised his wording. Dr. Mellow stands on one side of an intense debate among educators about the necessity of algebra for students who do not plan to pursue concentrated study in math- or science-related fields.
“I once got a note from a student who said, ‘This developmental algebra is a stainless-steel wall and there’s no way up it, around it or under it,’ ” she told me in her office one afternoon recently.
What makes algebra so hard for community college students? One factor is that many have been taught so poorly before they arrive. They have developed a debilitating reliance on calculators, Abderrazak I. Belkharraz, the chairman of the LaGuardia math department, told me, “for things as simple as what is the cosine of pi over two.” And the pedagogy tends to focus on computation rather than the underlying concepts, leaving the practice of math to seem far removed from the students’ experiences.
Imagine that! De Jesus could not figure out something “as simple as what is the cosine of pi over two.”
Let the truth be told: I took two years of algebra in high school, and I have no idea of what the cosine of pi over two is. Maybe I did in 1956, the year I graduated from high school, but I don’t now. And over the course of the many years since then, I have never once needed to know the cosine of pi over two. Why should a young man who desperately wants to teach art be required to pass an algebra test to get a community college degree? Perhaps he will never pass that test. Perhaps he will never get an associate’s degree. Perhaps he will never be allowed to teach art because he doesn’t know algebra. Without that degree, what will he do?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
On one hand, the point about why someone who wants to teach art should have to take a math class is a valid point…but I would argue that there should be minimum standards and expectations for all of our teachers. The CC is not asking him to take Calculus, but rather a lower level math class..
That said, I think there is a larger issue here…I have taught such courses before and have worked with many students similar to Mr. DeJesus…Part of the issue is that those who are teaching the lower level classes often have poor pedagogy. I would venture to guess that Mr. de Jesus has essentially been taught the same way each time he has taken the class he has struggled with…He may have even had the same teacher each time. As a former high school math teacher and now someone working with future math teachers. I do know that all of need to do a better job with teaching pedagogy at all levels, including (and maybe most importantly) community college
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The Common Core has a ton of calculus imbedded in it–for all students as young as 9th grade. It has been an enormous uphill battle at my house to help my son, who has a math processing disability, to pass grade level Common Core, even though he will never use geometric proofs or many of the other things that he is forced to regurgitate. What are we doing to kids?
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Jlsteach,
You wrote, “Part of the issue is that those who are teaching the lower level classes often have poor pedagogy. I would venture to guess that Mr. de Jesus has essentially been taught the same way each time he has taken the class he has struggled with…He may have even had the same teacher each time. As a former high school math teacher and now someone working with future math teachers….”
I teach the high school “lower level” classes; Algebra 1 and sometimes Geometry. I have tried a myriad of approaches: traditional, Direct Interactive Instruction, and collaboration. Have you found a way to make high school students understand and apply Algebra 1 when they’re missing years of background in basic math and number sense? You probably know what I’m talking about, so I won’t spell this out for you. What I find, if anything, that works with low kids, is NOT collaboration, but lots of direct, guided instruction with drill and kill a part of the menu. I said, “a part.”
A graduate school professor denied the assertion that kids so far behind could not be successful in math once in high school. He rolled out one of his former students teaching 7th grade math as an example. She had some success, but still could not help all of the students. What impressed the professor, however, was her bulletin boards, her handouts, her activities, and the way her students were engaged; even I was impressed and let the young teacher know this.
But, being effectively engaged still requires background knowledge, and this is often absent in some students. When I taught in Catholic schools, I mostly had students that were at grade-level when they entered; it was my job to teach them Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra II, and Trigonometry with NO excuses–and I did. I did my job.
In light of what I have said, and given the deficiencies in prior math knowledge, would you still attribute a student’s inability to do Algebra I to “poor pedagogy?” Thank you.
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Hear, hear.
I teach Geometry and Algebra 2. Very few students who do poorly are undone by learning the new material in those classes. They are stymied by their lack of basic math skills: knowing multiplication tables, arithmetic with fractions, order of operations, and similar elementary-school level math.
At least in my district, all entering 9th graders are placed into Algebra 1 or above because state law says they get no math credit for anything lower. Never mind that before high school they also get promoted to the next math class whether they understand any of that year’s material. Students get dumped into Algebra 1 whether they are ready or several years behind. Then we get blamed for them not graduating on time. Once they fail Algebra, *then* there might be resources available to help them out while a few hours a week in a pull out session in third grade could have fixed things.
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I would posit that teaching over and over the same thing in the same way does not change the outcome. The pedagogy you mention, the “myriad of approaches” you mention, are just different set-ups to deliver the material in the same way.
First, the basic math concepts MUST be retaught and quite possibly in a different, much more hands-on and visual way. So must the algebra content, not the same direct instruction/follow the recipe way, but again, much more concrete and hands-on.
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TCliff,
Nice reply. I’ve used manipulatives, and the kids hate it. Still, your suggestions are valid. I’ve found that teaching both basic math concepts and Algebra 1 together, prevents me from finishing the curriculum.
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx As a math-hobbled brain, allow me to expand. Our math methods in the US should, I think, start with abacus and manipulables from PreK, for number sense. At higher levels: there were some exchanges with Japan & China in the ’70’s & ’80’s that came to these conclusions: US math pedagogy tends to teach by memorizing rote formulas & applying them repetitively to data sets. Asian pedagogy tends, oppositely, to provide data sets repetitively while encouraging students to derive a variety of methods for obtaining the same answer, then to derive formulas to explain the observed results. Often these students are working with manipulables in a basket.
That’s the ideal. But just working w/n our own system: traditionally, we taught arithmetic in the lower grades and higher math starting in about 7th grade, losing many students at the transition. The problem may have been that arithmetic, during the years when students think concretely, was taught rotely rather than concretely. Students without that concrete number sense are not able to make the transition to intro to algebra, regardless of pedagogy… except perhaps, using the Asian method, they might still catch up.
Perhaps we are saying the same thing.
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S&FF,
Your response doesn’t indicate a “math-hobbled brain.”
I’ve never agreed completely with the statement that American math requires memorization of a formula, which is then applied to problem solving or practice sets. I recall teachers from grade eight on DEVELOPING formulas or algorithms by PROVING them. This required the use of the previously developed concepts, and it entailed a lot of writing in a series of steps that continued to be simplified. I do not recall the teachers saying here is the formula for the area of a triangle, or here is the procedure for adding and subtracting integers.
The way they taught made sense, but I had to observe how the previous concepts were being used, which I had mastered already. In recent years, or perhaps decades, teachers may not be doing this, instead “cutting to the chase” by saying to the kids, “To add integers with opposite signs you simply follow this procedure.” Or, “Here’s the formula for volume of a right cylinder. Now, work out this group of exercises.” Remedial level teachers will lose the kids if they attempt to teach in the manner I learned. Trying it the reverse way with the data sets sounds like a great idea, but I have yet to see it work; the kids give up quickly. All I can do is answer their questions with my own questions. I have to make them think, and I have to get them engaged.
Still, they don’t understand the difference between 4 divided by 2 and 2 divided by four. They believe that when you divide fractions, you must get a common denominator. By high school, this and much more must be mastered; any professor who insists that I can finish the curriculum while re-teaching pre-requisites, only gives me an inferiority complex. Seriously, I would like to have students who have the prerequisites, and then I would be able to truly reflect on what it might be about my approach to teaching geometry or algebra that might be amiss IF my students are struggling. This is not something we should laugh at and say, “Yeah, right.”
Yet, we insist “All kids can learn math.” Really? Calculus? It depends on some things.
I appreciate the tenor and content of your comments! Thank you!
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S&FF,
I just re-read your post.
I would tend to agree: anything that makes math more concrete for the pre-7th grade student would be welcomed by those of us who follow in their footsteps. And, I appreciate your supportive response that algebra pedagogy alone is not sufficient if the student’s math foundation is built on sand.
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“This shows, perhaps, that the Wall Street hedge funders and the philanthropists shower their millions on the strivers and the winners, not on the strugglers and stragglers like Vladimir de Jesus.”
Exactly! This same sentiment was apparent in the coverage of the community colleges in Chicago. Young people who need a hand up have to earn it somehow, by groveling at being deserving.
We are a poorer nation when we exclude the talents of those who are not born on third base with a silver spoon in their mouths.
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It is no surprise to me that many second language learners struggle in community college. I was an ESL teacher for over thirty-six years where I taught mostly poor Haitian and Latino students. I also taught ESL in a community college as well. Many immigrants have too many factors working against them, Poverty is against them. Many like this gentleman have dependent children to care for so they work two jobs. They often live in crowded homes with very little personal space. Due to poverty there are frequent family crises: my cousin got arrested; my mother has diabetes and needs care; I got laid off from work, to name a few. They have a much larger problem as well. They really don’t understand the culture of higher education. No one has done it before them; no one can tutor them, guide and mentor them! Some can manage it without guidance, but they are few. They need someone they can rely on to help them navigate these new waters; They may need to attend meaningful remedial classes, figure out time management and organization. Middle class kids can lean on their families. These kids often have the family leaning on them, and they stand alone.
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First of all, community colleges around the nation are filled with students from middle income families because they cannot afford the full 4-year schools. My niece is a curator at a museum, and she started at a community college so her family could save money before she transferred to Rutgers. After the mess with the economy, more students from middle class homes attended community colleges. And Mrs. Biden has been pushing the financial advantages of going to a community college.
As for the math requirement, I don’t know how many NYC followers of this blog have ever read the blog Pissed Off Teacher. She is a former HS math teacher now teaching community college. She writes about her students in these math classes. She tells of those who do their assignments, come to class prepared and come on time and with questions. She writes about those who she meets before class to tutor and those who contact her for help. But she also writes about the students who show up late and unprepared. Who refuse to meet for tutoring and think they are in high school where they can get seat credit. Many of her students are not prepared for the requirements of college, and she points to the reforms in high school math as the culprit.
Pissed Off wrote extensively about the students she tutored in the halls of her overcrowded high school. She wrote about those who were not placed in the correct math class as well as those she wanted promoted to a higher level, but because they missed the cutoff by a few percentage points, were denied. And she knew they worked hard to do well and now felt defeated. She wrote about the minority children who should have been placed in advanced classes but weren’t. Many of her former students still keep in touch with her because her caring was evident.
I am not a fan of Bellafante’s reporting. I have always found it bias, as if she is trying to please her “Reform” editors. As for your question as to why one should learn math to teach art, maybe because math appears in all aspects. Perspective, cubism, architecture, just to name a few. Thus the problem goes back to the high schools and to all the faults Pissed Off wrote about. It became about the tests, not the content and certainly not about the students. Math is one of those subjects that should be taught by leveling rather than a curriculum map and final test score.
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This is a terrific comment; thank you.
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what is odd is that education and industry go hand in hand and yet our “philanthropists” have a disdain for those who are below a certain income bracket for both. I could never get a job at any major corporation because I cannot afford the education that is necessary. I cannot afford the loans, the travel expenses, or the housing costs.
They also have a disdain where actually helping a lower income person start on the road to success is concerned. I have been struggling to start my own business for over seven years and I can tell you, it is all a numbers game. you can PROVE to them numerous times that you will be highly successful, but they have a hard time accepting the numbers. as if their math is superior to everyone else’s.
It is truly sad that those who are controlling everything are so ignorant of reality. You cannot breed out poverty, but you can hide it. You cannot breed out creativity, but you can stifle it. you cannot get rid of diversity, but you can ignore it. You cannot breed out stupidity, you can just hide it under a nice suit of clothes and bury it under billions of dollars.
It seems as if the more money one has, the dumber and less in touch they become. Gates came from a middle class family. He is now attacking what is left of the middle class along with the lower class. Where is the humanitarianism in that? I won’t go into the Koch Brothers. Or Rove. But nearly every one of those who are now trying to “destroy” poverty are destroying any chance that there will ever be another “Bill Gates” in industry. Why? Because they are too fixed on “programming” the masses to be docile workers who won’t ask for anything. But, Like all regimes, it will lead to a revolt somewhere down the line. History has proven that more times than they care to admit, the last being Russia in the 1990’s.
Do they really want to travel that road? Apparently they have to in order to learn time tested lessons the hard way. As a writer, I have been privy to many different scenarios where this is concerned. And science fiction is rife with the warnings, some of which now reside on the “Banned Books” list. We are coming awful close to perilous times where this country may not survive, and for what? the gratification of a handful of rich ignorant fools? If We The People do not stand up to be counted and shed our pretenses of party politics, we will fail as a nation and as human beings.
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JT, You are so articulate–I hope you can start the business you desire. Have you tried KickStart & other crowd fund sources?
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Should completion rates be used to judge a community college? I don’t think so. Roles of a community college include providing adult and community education and just in time training. It is not just about getting a degree or going on to a four-year institution. There are a lot of life-long learners out their and individuals who are polishing their skills to take advantage of job opportunities. We do all of these citizens a disservice when value is placed only on completion. Of course that bit of data feeds two things: 1-the educational industrial complex and 2- the illusion that American education is failing.
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“One factor is that many have been taught so poorly before they arrive.”
While the above pull quote may be true in a few cases, I think the next quote from me is more to the point for most of these students.
“One factor is that many have failed to learn what the teachers struggled to teach them.”
Having taught for thirty years in schools with high rates of poverty, I think it is arguable, that the second quote is more accurate.
I think that Chapter 2 of “Teaching with Poverty in Mind” by Eric Jenson may help explain what I mean.
“Socioeconomic status forms a huge part of this equation. Children raised in poverty rarely choose to behave differently, but they are faced daily with overwhelming challenges that affluent children never have to confront, and their brains have adapted to suboptimal conditions in ways that undermine good school performance.”
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109074/chapters/How-Poverty-Affects-Behavior-and-Academic-Performance.aspx
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Well here is the real truth. Mr. de Jesus will likely NEVER get a teaching job, a job teaching art. Teaching jobs are few and far between, as we know with TFA getting preference over certified novice teachers, and even veteran/experienced teachers. Art class are being cancelled, as are music classes, gym classes, and electives.
Community colleges sell a dream to the disadvantaged, knowing most of them will never reach their dream, and creating debt.
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I believe many of the students who come from disadvantage areas receive financial aid. If I am wrong, please let me know. But I do believe a higher level of responsibility should come with this aid. And, if you are required to take certain classes, then do your best to pass them. I too struggled with algebra, but I spent many hours studying, and finally got it. Today’s students have poor study skills and are possibly turned off by school in general. Many of the math concepts I was taught in college, I had to teach on the elementary level. Now these same concepts are being taught on the early childhood level. And with being on a “testing schedule”, there is very little time to remediate or review or even make math fun. And we can thank NCLB and RTTT for that.
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I believe many of the students who come from disadvantage areas receive financial aid.”
That might be true, but it’s only part of the story. These people are being targeted by unscrupulous schools precisely because they can get financial aid. And as with the banks who gave out loans to people they knew would likely go into foreclosure but did it nonetheless because they know they could package up the bad loans and pawn them off on unsuspecting investors (State pension plans and others) , these schools are doing the same thing. For profit colleges are making a killing at the expense of low income student, capitalizing on 9and then crushing) their dreams.
See “Education with a Debt Sentence”
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I teach ESL in both elementary and a community college. Math is very important for everyone. Math is related to art in the realm of spatial perception. I sat at a table with my colleagues at a workshop. We were given a math problem and I was the only one who was able to solve it. I am not a proponent of the theory that we should not be required to take courses outside our areas of expertise. We never know what the future will hold.
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And those with a spacial perception disability are just screwed? What happens to my son with that disability?
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Hi Threatened!
I have terrible spatial perception myself. What happens to students with severe dyslexia? Colleges tend to be rigid in their requirements. They do provide accommodations such as extra time and taking tests outside the classroom. I am going to find out if they exempt students from particular courses. This is an important point.
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The “D” word is rarely uttered on this site. In fact it is rarely uttered by teachers, counselors, or administrators. The most common reading (and math) related disability in America and it is ignored by educators. It goes untested simply because it is too expensive. This is one of the dirty-little -secrets of education for which we should all be ashamed. Nearly 20% of all students have at least, mild dyslexia and we act as if it doesn’t exist.
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I went to Temple University in the Sixties and took a year of math for non-science majors. It was great! It was interesting and without it I never would have graduated and start a teaching career that lasted 42 years.
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I took the same course, at Temple, in the sixties and also had a successful teaching career. It was probability and game theory, right?
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I think the Gates Foundation might count as caring about community colleges:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2010/10/Foundation-Launches-Program-to-Boost-Community-College-Graduation-Rates
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Oh, and there is the half billion dollars as well
http://diverseeducation.com/article/59973/
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Oh, not really a donation to community colleges, but there was the billion dollars to the United Negro College Fund as well
http://articles.philly.com/1999-09-17/news/25489579_1_uncf-bill-and-melinda-minority-students
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I can’t imagine why anyone would ever need to know algebra and trigonometry for fine art.
I paint landscapes and animals and can’t recall ever using algebra or trig in a painting . Tangents would certainly be tangential to the task at hand. And cosines would be incosinequential.
I’d say that a community college that is making algebra and trig a requirement for a teaching degree in fine art really needs to assess what it is they are trying to accomplish with such a requirement .
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I so agree! Hi some DAM poet I like all your parody lyrics. The student in question had passed his GED; presumably there’s a math element to that & not sure why any further reqd for a fine arts major. Speaking for myself I struggled mightily to pass the h.s. algebra portion of Regents h.s. diploma; as an Ivy League foreign lang/lit major there was ZERO math reqd… I checked back & found at my alma mater I would now need a 3-cr course, but it would be satisfied by a number of non-algebra courses that appeal to me such as intro to logic, computational linguistics, intro to computer programming etc.
Can’t help finding the alg reqt for a comm coll student going for art teacher suspect: are they saying that h.s. algebra isn’t enough? Or are they actually testing the student & finding that his h.s. background did not meet muster in the math dept.
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“but it would be satisfied by a number of non-algebra courses ”
I think that is key. That’s the common sense, reasonable approach
Art involves math, or at lest a basic understanding of mathematical concepts like perspective and geometry (though obviously, geometric proofs are not particularly important.
Perhaps the community college in question could offer a course for art majors and others who don’t need algebra and trig that included those things.
That would be the “Common Sense” (as opposed to Common Core) approach (I wonder, can I copyright or trademark “Common Sense”?).
The thing that I find most ridiculous about the current “reform” movement is that it has thrown common sense right out the window and replaced it with the kooky ideas of ignorant people who know nothing about education and human development. It’s like having someone who has never been out on a “date” (Bill Gates until he was over 40?) to write a book about dating. It’s absurd.
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The difference I’ve noticed is the tolerance for failure. All college students should be allowed to experiment even if it means learning from mistakes. But those in community colleges have less support and often cannot afford to retake classes or switch courses of study. The margin for failure is razor thin. In wealthier private and even 4 year colleges, the opportunities for support and accommodations are much more likely.
I am basically home schooling my college student attending a community college. The courses are sink or swim with take it or leave it curriculum. He is very intelligent, but has learning challenges. The school is underfunded. In one class, if he takes an online assessment and the network fails or he hits the back button, he receives a zero. But the instructor is very good and dedicated. She tries very hard, but adjuncts are not well paid and community colleges are low on our state funding list. No billion dollar endowments or free football tickets. It just isn’t where our politicians send their kids, so it is not a priority to them.
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My community college has students repeating courses frequently. We have tutoring labs and offer lots of support.
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Sounds like a good school. At ours, the budget is cut to the bone and the school is financially struggling. Enrollment is down. The state has cut the funding to higher ed at all levels, but community colleges took the biggest hit. Our state is near the bottom in job creation and median wages are down. Tutoring labs are not the same as a supportive system that personalizes learning. You know full well a student paying $40,000 a year will get more consideration than a kid working his way through waiting tables.
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MarhVale,
I would be the last person to compare a community college to a four year institution. The bulk of our courses are remedial. We have students doing third grade math.
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NJ Teacher,
Are the students doing third grade math generally graduates of US high schools, dropouts, or students educated abroad?
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Here is the syllabus for the Math 96 class that is a requirement for graduation from LaGuardia CC: http://www.laguardia.cuny.edu/uploadedFiles/Main_Site/Content/Academics/Departments/MEC/Doc/Syllabus/MAT096.pdf
While I understand the sentiment behind some comments here–students with disabilities, students who will never use math in their further studies or chosen professions–waiving such requirements could seriously undermine one of the most important roles of the community college, which is to ensure that a graduate can begin study as a third-year at a bachelor’s granting institution.
It’s encouraging that LaGuardia is having success with a curriculum-based intervention (that this particular student didn’t participate in), and incoming CUNY community college students are generally better prepared for advance math thanks to the START program.
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Tim,
What shall we do with those who will never pass a test in algebra and who don’t need it in their life? Throw them away?
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I’m assuming his hard work at LaGuardia has prepared him for the math and communication multiple-choice questions on the sanitation exam. Sanitation jobs pay $70,000 (not including overtime or special assignments) after only 5 years on the job, with a generous pension kicking in after 22.
Perhaps this wasn’t his dream, but I would hardly consider it being “thrown away.” I completely sympathize with people whose life circumstances make it difficult to study, whether it is job and family obligations, a disability, or something else, but even an associate’s degree should represent some basic level of numeracy and literacy. This is ninth/tenth-grade math.
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Do you really think that quadratic equations fall into the category of “basic numeracy”?
This requirement closes the door for too many young people. How and why the subject of algebra became a gate keeper requirement is beyond me.
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In my state, Algebra is not THE college level Math course that is required in the General Education Core Curriculum for degree seeking students and prospective teachers. There are other choices. This was determined in the 90s and agreed upon by community colleges and four year state universities, as well as some private colleges, in the Illinois Articulation Initiative, because experts determined that
“College algebra is primarily taught as a prerequisite for other math courses, especially for the study of calculus. As such, its focus is on mechanical and technical aspects of math-“nuts and bolts” skills that are needed at a high level in subsequent courses-rather than on the mathematical reasoning and problem solving that the college graduate will encounter in real-world settings. College algebra plays an important role in the curriculum for the further study of math, but it does not emphasize the foundations of quantitative literacy nor does it solidify and deepen such a foundation, the objective for including math within the Illinois Transferable General Education Core Curriculum… [General Education Math Panel, 1994] [Added October 1997]”
http://www.itransfer.org/IAI/others/faq.aspx?section=students#Algebra
One or two courses are required for teachers here, depending on the college and program. Therefore, many colleges offer other college level Math courses, such as General Education Mathematics, General Education Statistics, Statistical Reasoning, Mathematics for Elementary Teaching I and II, and Finite Mathematics. Prospective teachers often take General Ed Math and Math for Teachers I.
When I first went to college in 1970, students had a choice of taking two college level Math OR Science courses to fulfill their General Education requirements. Years later, Gen Eds were changed to require BOTH Math and Science here. Considering all the students I worked with at a private college that required Algebra and for whom that course was the one and only obstacle preventing them from graduating, I think requiring Algebra is a HUGE mistake.
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Actually, it was just ONE college level Math or Science with Lab course that was required when I went to college in 70. (I forgot because I took two.)
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I would suggest that we don’t certify that those people who can’t pass algebra as having passed algebra and let them continue to live out thier lives.
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NY Teacher, I’m basing that off the fact that just about everyone seems to be in agreement this is material that is covered in 9th/10th grade (and probably in 7th/8th at high-performing schools). Is that not the case?
Can/should a student who can’t pass a test on this material be able to receive a HS diploma? Is this material different from what’s needed to pass the GED tests? (These aren’t rhetorical questions; I don’t know the answers.) It also appears that a student could pass this course without mastering every single element on the syllabus.
I do see your point, but these institutions (both the CCs and the CUNY four-year colleges they feed to) have to draw a line somewhere.
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Yet Diane, these courses are demanded of our students in high school and now if you look at the math curriculum on the elementary level, you will find much of it not age appropriate.
Before I entered Hunter, I attended Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn. I did this because my parents didn’t have the money for college. So I went at night. When I transferred to day I was astounded by the lack of commitment by students who attended by day compared to those of us who worked and went to school. It made me feel old.
btw, when I attended Hunter, Education was a minor not a major. We were expected to fulfill Liberal Arts requirements, including math. So this student would eventually have to take the course. But if math is holding back students at the CC level, imagine what it is doing to our middle and high school students. Math in this country is not taught on a deeper level. We go from concept to concept to concept instead of delving into a few concepts for a longer period of time. CC was supposed to fix that. Instead it is introducing new types of strategies, which is fine although not always age appropriate, but not allowing students the time to grasp it. And it’s still geared towards test prep.
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I was one of those who went to community college for the first two years: the only class I did not get an “A” in was Statistics…I got a “B” and it was really through the generosity of the teacher who helped me with a lot of tutoring… It had been ten years since Algebra.
I know that not many of my fellow students had such an age gap but for those adult returning students, math changes. I had to pass a portion of my teaching cert in math and I was surprised at how differently they teach concepts now.
I went on to Berkeley and graduated with honors, in Comp Lit. I shudder to think that, if I had been forced to take Algebra and had been unable to pass, my entire life as a French and English teacher, would have been waylaid. And btw, a “sanitation” degree would have paid better than a teacher, but would not have used my skills well, for whomever “suggested” this…
I agree that Algebra should not be THE required math for certain majors, however nixing the math requirement in my opinion would be a mistake.
I dream of content-specific math courses as an optional credit…spatial design and math for art majors would be cool.
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The actual student featured in the piece is the person who came up with the idea of taking the entrance exam for the NY Department of Sanitation.. Second-to-last graf: “His worries about money have escalated to the point that he has recently begun to think about a job with the Sanitation Department.”
I don’t think that weakening or eliminating the requirements for a CUNY associate degree would be a good thing for the (admittedly small, at least in proportion to overall CUNY enrollment) students who, like you, are hoping to transfer to elite universities.
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I know this journey all too well.
You see, I was born to poverty, was a horrible passive-aggressive student—who would have been one of the nightmares for teachers being judged by CCSS today—without much discipline, and the only math classes I took K to 12 were general math because they were easy. I never took algebra until I was in a community college on the GI Bill after serving several years in the Marines and fighting in Vietnam.
In my first two years in a community college, I took several semesters of algebra, geometry, trig, calculus, psychics, etc, and I’m convinced that if it hadn’t been for the iron clad discipline literally pounded into me by the Marine Corps Drill Instructors, I would have given up for sure.
Now, to be clear on this issue, that doesn’t mean I advocate forcing kids into a similar situation. I was not drafted into the Marines. The decision to join about the time I barely graduated from high school was my decision—-not the decision of a Bill Gates or Arne Duncan. Isn’t that what choice is all about—the choice to learn or not?
Once I transferred out of that 2-year community college and into a four year college to focus on the major of my choice, which eventually was journalism, I had no use for all those math classes but they were required to earn my AS and then that BA in journalism five years after starting.
But what happens to the child who grew up in poverty who was never—-voluntarily—- exposed to the level of discipline the Marine Corps instills in its recruits?
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The problem to me seems to be that CC has some students who want a certificate – job – and others who want to transfer. It is a complex problem – between giving second chances for a meaningful education and allowing students to become bogged down in developmental classes which they may not ever be able to pass. Do we just pass them on, as has been done in K-12? Do we change the requirements to graduate? These are difficult questions and aren’t getting easier. Bottom line is that we have to do a better job of preparing all students to reach their dreams.
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On the subject of passing algebra as a requirement for college graduation.
I took algebra for two years in high school–algebra 1 and 2–each a one-year course.
Then I was lucky enough to be accepted by an Ivy League college–Wellesley, where Hillary Rodham Clinton and Madeline Korbel Albright and Nora Ephron also went (I graduated in 1960, long before Hillary arrived, worked on the newspaper with Madeline ’59 and Nora ’62).
In my four years at Wellesley, I never took any math class. None. Zero. Nada. I took lots of history, political science, literature, and French. No math.
Yet Vladimir de Jesus can’t graduate LaGuardia Community College because of algebra. This is nuts!
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This is a real conundrum. I attend private colleges for both my BA and MA and took continuing ed classes to maintain my certification at a public university. It was my experience that the public institution, perhaps out of a feeling of inferiority, imposed far more requirements and strictures than the private institutions. This was also borne out by the experiences of many of my students as well as my own kids. Two of them graduated private colleges (one at Wellesley) and the third a state university. I found that the distribution requirements for the third were far more burdensome than for the other two, who were more free to pursue their own interests.
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And, there are far more supports available to students who struggle at elite institutions than the public ones – tutoring, writing centers, professors with actual office hours, instead of adjuncts working out of their cars, research libraries staffed with professional librarians. Why is it that those with the greatest need can expect to receive the least?
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In the early 70s, Mary Washington College, the women’s college of U Va, required 6 credits of philosophy or math; I transferred to a selective “poison ivy league” college that required 2 science or math courses. Would I encourage HS and college kids now to take all the math they can? Definitely, but CCs need to consider if philosophy or other courses would serve as well.
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Would it be possible for a Community College to create different degree tracks? There could be technical track that includes algebra and a humanities track where a intro to stats would suffice. I graduate from a NJ state teachers college in 1979 and was not required to take any math at all. The over emphasis on math did not take root until after A Nation at Risk report.
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Here is a thought. The edreformers did away with script/cursive writing on the premise that everyone uses keyboards, and no one writes anymore. I think its truly sad, but that is how it is. Some schools decided to bring script/cursive back, but that isn’t my point here.
With spell checking and thesaurus on a computer, people can crutch for vocabulary and spelling. It is built in; so is a calculator.
If script writing is no longer necessary to the edreformers because of computers, and spelling and a thesaurus are part of a computer to aid in that regard, why should everyone need algebra, but instead basic math, so long as their jobs don’t rely on it, without algebra and any other “higher” or “deeper” math?
P.S. to schoolgal – financial aid doesn’t pay 100% for people who can’t afford college. My niece and nephew have near full-time jobs, and are attending state colleges, one having just transferred from County college; their student aid is in the form of loans, not grants, and even the loans they can get are only 1/2 of what each semester costs and they have to pony up the remainder. They will be in debt for a long time. Their parents are in foreclosure; their mom has pancreatic cancer. Soon, all of them will be living with me. God bless America.
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