Outrage when school board woke up for being too white and Asian

Parents in a Massachusetts school district are expressing disappointment at a years-long decision to eliminate advanced math assessment in middle school.

Cambridge Public Schools began phasing out advanced math courses in grades six through eight around 2017, when district officials noticed stark racial disparities in the program.

The students sorted into the advanced math course were overwhelmingly white and Asian, while the lower-level courses were mostly filled with black and Hispanic students, the Boston Globe reported on Friday.

As a result of the change, and after further complications from the pandemic, none of the district’s four middle schools offer Algebra I, which some parents say actually exacerbates inequality by restricting advanced math to those who can afford private tutors.

“The students who are able to move into a higher math class.” [in high school] are students from better-off backgrounds,” Jacob Barandes, a district parent and Harvard physicist, told the Globe.

“They disadvantage a significant number of students, mostly students from poorer backgrounds, which is deeply unfair.”

Victoria Greer, Superintendent of Cambridge Public Schools Jacob Barandes

Cambridge Public Schools principal Victoria Greer (left) says she is working to bring more advanced math back into the middle school curriculum, but parents including Jacob Barandes (right) are frustrated after saying they have to Visit private tutor

Another parent, Martin Udengaard, told the outlet that he is taking his son out of the county and is considering whether to homeschool the child or send him to a private school that offers Algebra 1 in the eighth grade.

Parents expressed concern that without Algebra 1 in middle school, their children would be forced to cram in a condensed math course load in high school to advance to advanced courses such as calculus.

The origin of the decision to eliminate advanced mathematics is unclear. A former school board member said the original goal was for every eighth grader to take Algebra 1.

“Algebra in eighth grade has been voted on many times over the past 30 years,” wrote Patty Nolan, a current Cambridge councilor and former school board member, in a letter to Cambridge Day in May.

“And if I’m not mistaken, the school committee didn’t retract their numerous votes that algebra is a goal for every eighth grader.”

In a 2019 report, Edutopia reported that county officials were concerned that students would be profiled and placed in advanced or lower courses based on their race.

“Over time you have lower-level math courses filled with Black and Hispanic kids and higher-level math courses filled with white and Asian kids,” Manuel Fernandez, then principal of Cambridge Street Upper School, told the outlet.

“Students internalize it — they believe the smart kids are the white kids.” “Our staff said we can’t keep dividing our students like that.”

Principal Victoria Greer told the Globe that she and other district principals are working on plans to include more advanced math elements in the middle school curriculum

“We place a strong emphasis on bridging both the academic achievement gaps and the opportunity gaps in our community,” she said. “One thing that the district has no interest in is maintaining those gaps.”

Cambridge Street Upper School, one of the district's four middle schools

Cambridge Street Upper School, one of the district’s four middle schools

Greer and members of the Cambridge Schools Board, known as the Schools Committee, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from on Saturday night.

Cambridge isn’t the only school district to scrap advanced courses to eliminate racial differences.

Schools in San Francisco and Escondido, California, have also eliminated math tracking, the practice of placing students in different courses of varying difficulty.

Critics of careers argue that it encourages inequality, pointing out that academic performance is highly correlated with socioeconomic status, and initial career placement and subsequent performance may result in class plans being segregated by income and race are.

They say all students are better served when classrooms reflect a mix of social backgrounds and academic achievement levels.

It’s not the first time Cambridge Public Schools, located in a wealthy and left-leaning city that’s also home to Harvard University, has made headlines.

In 2017, a CPS librarian publicly denied a gift from Dr. Seuss children’s books by then First Lady Melania Trump, calling the books “racist” and “clichéd.”

The First Lady gifted packages of books to a county in each state to mark National Read a Book Day.

In a blog post, school librarian Dr. Seuss as the “weary and weary ambassador of children’s literature” and said his illustrations were “infused with racist propaganda, caricature and harmful stereotypes”.

At the time, the district said the post reflected their personal opinions and “did not constitute a formal acceptance or rejection of donated books.”