Comics, 4-28-21: Racist Math English

Virginia Eliminates Accelerated Math Courses Because of Equity
4-23-21, Federalist -- The Virginia Dept of Education [VDOE] is currently gathering public feedback and has yet to draft a new version of its mathematics standards. The earliest a draft could come before the VDOE is school year 2022-2023 and the earliest any Virginia students would begin learning math under the new paradigm is school year 2025-2026. [..] Every job in the future is going to need more focus on data. Only in 11th and 12th grade is there any opportunity for choice in higher math courses.

VDOE spokesperson Charles Pyle told Fox News the Virginia Mathematics Pathways Initiative (VMPI) would “support increased differentiated learning opportunities within a heterogeneous [diverse] learning environment.” Delegate candidate for Virginia’s 50th House District, Mike Allers, told The Federalist that VDOE “didn’t level the playing field —they destroyed it.” Oftentimes initiatives, like one created by the VDOE, are pitched as a way of giving black and brown students a necessary leg up, but Allers said barring students from taking accelerated courses will have the opposite effect.

The program will include rejiggering eighth, ninth and 10th-grade math courses to place a greater emphasis on fields including data science and data analytics. Schools would still offer traditional courses such as Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II, but these courses would now have stronger foundations in data analytics. Loudoun County school board member Ian Serotkin reported that the VDMI is a “a sweeping initiative by the Virginia Dept of Education to revamp the K-12 math curriculum statewide over the next few years” by “eliminat[ing] ALL math acceleration prior to 11th grade.”

Tacoma College: Proper grammar perpetuates racism and unjust language structures
2-21-17, WashTimes -- The University of Washington, Tacoma's Writing Center now instructs students that expecting proper grammar perpetuates racism and “unjust language structures.” A cadre of staffers recently crafted an instructional poster for “Huskies” on “anti-racist and social justice work.” The Daily Caller reported that the project was spearheaded by Dr. Asao Inoue, the center’s director who said: “Racism is the normal condition of things. Racism is pervasive. It is in the systems, structures, rules, languages, expectations, and guidelines that make up our classes, school, and society. For example, linguistic and writing research has shown clearly for many decades that there is no inherent ‘standard’ of English. Language is constantly changing. These two facts make it very difficult to justify placing people in hierarchies or restricting opportunities and privileges because of the way people communicate in particular versions of English.”  More here