[Ohiogift] New California law will regulate 9th. grade math acceleration

[Margaret DeLacy]

Friends:

Below is a link to, and excerpt from a story that appeared on the Curriculum Matters blog of Education Week:

Margaret


http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2015/12/calif_districts_tweak_qualifications_for_accelerated_math.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news3

Calif. Districts to Tweak Placement Policies for Accelerated Math
By Liana Heitin on December 17, 2015 4:20 PM

Under a new California law, districts must put into place "fair, objective, and transparent" placement policies for 9th grade math classes by the beginning of the next school year. 

Previous placement policies have often been applied unevenly, and in many cases districts left such decisions up to individual teachers. "The new law was written to ensure that all students face the same objective criteria for determining the path to calculus," reports the education news site EdSource.

Across the country, advanced classes tend to be whiter and wealthier than the schools they are in as a whole. 

Starting next year in California, policies for determining 9th grade placement must take multiple "objective academic measures" of performance into account, such as statewide math assessments, placement tests, assignments, and grades, the law says. 

During the first month of the school year, districts must check to make sure students have been placed properly. They must also look at placement data annually to ensure students are not being held back from advanced work disproportionately by race, ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic background. And they have to offer parents who question a student's placement "clear and timely recourse.".....