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Faculty members across the University of California system are staging a behind-the-scenes protest against an admissions policy they say risks leaving their students unprepared for college-level math.
A few years ago, UC expanded the array of math classes that qualify applicants for a spot in the system. But swaths of faculty members have been asking a UC academic-governance panel to rethink its decision, arguing that some of the newly permitted options — which bill themselves as data-science classes — do not impart the skills needed to major in science, engineering, math, or technology, according to correspondence obtained by The Chronicle.
“Giving high school students the idea that it is OK to skimp on their math education is very dangerous,” stated a March letter from UC-Santa Barbara’s physics department, flanked by similar complaints from computer science and mechanical engineering. “Such students will have their career choices severely curtailed, at an early age, and perhaps without even realizing it.”
In another letter, a faculty member representing UC-Santa Cruz wrote, “We are concerned that under-represented groups, women, and those attending under-resourced schools may be steered into alternative math pathways that are promoted as being friendlier or more engaging but in fact offer less preparation.” Other letters, which The Chronicle obtained in part through public-records requests, came from UC-Irvine, UC-Riverside’s math department, a group of Black UC faculty members, and professors in the California State University system.
The pushback is coming at a crucial time for math education in the nation’s most populous state. In a soon-to-be-finalized policy document, primary and secondary schools will get guidance about how to teach math in a way that ostensibly narrows racial disparities and expands the STEM work force — goals that have confounded California and the rest of the country for generations.
Intense debate over the framework, which is nonbinding, has resulted in three sprawling drafts over the course of three years, the latest of which was released last week and could be adopted next week by California’s State Board of Education. As far as many professors in quantitative fields are concerned, one of the most alarming recommendations is that high schools should explore offering data science.
Professors and professionals in quantitative fields say that the skills being taught are better described as “data literacy” than as “data science.”
Under the decades-old American math sequence, students take arithmetic, algebra, geometry, algebra II, precalculus and trigonometry, and calculus. The UC system has traditionally required three years of high-school math, including algebra II. Roughly a quarter-million students apply to UC campuses every year, and the system’s criteria shape what is taught at high schools throughout the state.
But in October 2020, a systemwide faculty committee that oversees admission policies, the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS), recommended making room for options that could be taken in addition to, or instead of, the second year of algebra. Under the revised policy — which was meant to encourage students to take the math “most relevant to their academic and career goals” — data science became one such alternative.
One popular course, “Introduction to Data Science,” was developed at the University of California at Los Angeles and has been taken by 42,200 students across 151 high schools, according to its website. Another is “Explorations in Data Science,” which has been taught to more than 160,000 students across more than 1,400 schools and districts, according to Jo Boaler, a Stanford University professor of math education who helped develop it at Youcubed, a Stanford research center, and also helped write the proposed California math framework.
Proponents say the classes teach data skills relevant to the 21st century — collecting and analyzing data on real-world topics, like voter polls and water usage — and engage students who might otherwise drop out of math and won’t need calculus in their careers. Boaler has called swaths of algebra II as irrelevant as “sock darning and shorthand,” and many students find the concepts so difficult that in 2018, the California State University system stopped requiring intermediate algebra for students not majoring in math and science.
“Introduction to Data Science” and similar courses “open up opportunities for more students,” said Robert L. Gould, the course’s lead creator and a teaching professor in UCLA’s statistics department, by email. He cited a white paper that found that for about 40 students across three high schools in one district, taking his data-science course was what enabled them to meet UC admissions standards.
His class and the Youcubed course are UC-approved. But critics argue that they do not comply with the California system’s policies, which state that alternatives must “build upon” concepts from algebra II and be designed for juniors and seniors. “Introduction to Data Science” and “Explorations in Data Science” only teach concepts from algebra II that overlap with statistics, according to their syllabi, and “Introduction to Data Science” can be taken in the first half of high school. (Ryan King, a UC spokesperson, previously told The Chronicle that most versions of both courses meet its requirements, and that the data-science classes are considered “additional” options, not ones “replacing” algebra II. Gould said he believes that “Introduction to Data Science” is “considerably more complex and ‘advanced’ than algebra II.” Boaler declined to comment.)
Professors and professionals in quantitative fields say that the skills being taught are better described as “data literacy” than as “data science.” If there’s the slightest possibility that a student might major in data science — or engineering, computer science, and so on — they need to enter college calculus-ready, which means understanding logarithms, trigonometric functions, and other concepts traditionally introduced in algebra II. If skipping or delaying algebra II becomes commonplace, the concern goes, the STEM work force risks shrinking. (It’s not clear how many students are ditching algebra II. Boaler previously told The Chronicle that out of 63 students who took Youcubed’s course in the 2021 school year, 60 percent had taken algebra II before.)
This tradeoff is emphasized in the proposed California math framework. A student taking a class besides algebra II is “leaving the usual pathway for taking calculus in high school or in their first semester of college (as is expected in some universities for STEM majors),” the document states. But it also cites the UC system’s embrace of data science as evidence that it will “value a range of mathematics courses as pathways to college.”
That policy was recommended in 2020 by a small advisory group of mathematicians and statisticians, including Gould, who were convened by the UC administration in May of that year. That fall, the BOARS members unanimously adopted the proposal.
Now, some members appear to be rethinking it. At BOARS committee meetings in March and April, representatives for the Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz campuses all voiced concerns about math preparation, minutes show. At one point, “members suggested that the previous BOARS’ decision may have been rushed.”
A group of Black UC faculty members in data science-related fields sent a letter to the committee in May. “Introduction to Data Science” and courses like it, they wrote, “make claims that they specifically support learning for women and minorities, which are not only baseless, but fail to appreciate that they actually do the opposite and harm students from such groups by steering them away from being prepared for STEM majors.” And the chair of UC-Santa Barbara’s mechanical engineering department wrote to express “our strongest support for keeping Algebra 2 as a core requirement,” as it “teaches concepts which are absolutely essential for our undergraduate students to succeed in our program.”
Also sent to BOARS was a resolution passed by the California State University Academic Senate in March. It expressed frustration that the University of California had made “unilateral changes” instead of consulting with the CSU system, as per tradition. “Introduction to Data Science” is “inadequate preparation for college and career readiness,” and its growth threatens to increase the number of CSU students who need remedial tutoring, the statement said.
BOARS is set to meet again on Friday — which also happens to be the last day that the public can submit comments about the California math framework. Next week, California’s State Board of Education plans to vote on the document.
King, the UC spokesperson, directed a request for comment to Barbara Knowlton, the BOARS chair.
“I wanted to reiterate that BOARS strongly encourages all students to take 4 years of math to be prepared for admission to the UC,” Knowlton, who is also a UCLA psychology professor, wrote by email. “Furthermore, BOARS strongly encourages any student considering a career in STEM, social science, or data science to take math courses along a traditional calculus pathway as that will offer them preparation for the broadest level of college coursework.” She noted that this advice was recently added to BOARS’s public statement about math admissions.
Last week three of the California math framework’s authors held a webinar to discuss the proposed version. (They noted, though, that their involvement in the proposed framework had ended last summer. The latest draft was written by WestEd, a nonpartisan educational nonprofit, along with staff from the California Department of Education and the State Board of Education.)
During the meeting, one attendee raised the possibility that the UC system’s approval of data-science courses may be revoked — so “what would that mean for the framework and its data-science proposal?”
Boaler said she was holding out hope. “Personally, I don’t see that happening because this is such a huge need for our young people, to leave school with data literacy, and having a data-science course available for students is something that educators are very positive about,” she said. “So let’s wait and see, I would say.”
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