I think advanced math skills can be a critical pathway for children born in poverty not to spend their lives in poverty. I think if parents are committed to having their children learn advanced math skills, then society can make it happen.
The problem of poor outcomes for poor students (not just black students) begins at a very young age. Studies show that from the day school begins they are often behind and never catch up.
Sadly, some school systems have committed the unforgivable sin of trying to hold more advanced math students back, rather than helping those behind to catch up. It is unfair to any child to intentionally "hold them back" and deny them the chance to reach their full potential.
Even worse the strategy of holding children back actually denies opportunities to the poor as wealthier parents bypass the system by enrolling their children in special math classes or if they are wealthy enough private schools.
However, there is one approach that would build and in fact add to the approach being pursued in this article... it uses a very simple strategy... it’s called "more school". This strategy has many benefits, but essentially parents enroll their children in a "more school" program.
In the "more school" program, parents enroll children into a program where they will get up to two additional hours of schooling every day and 4-6 weeks of additional school over the summer.
The cost to families is commitment. They are told upfront, that this program is to help their child succeed in school, if the child is a behavioral problem in class, the child will not be eligible. If the child misses too many classes, the child will no longer be eligible. This class is for children of parents, who want their child to be prepared for life and are going to work hand in hand with the school system to make that happen.
The goal of the program is to lift the national test scores of students enrolled into the program above the average scores of students in the school system. A side benefit to parents is it provides their children an additional two hours of supervised time during the school week and up to six weeks of extended supervised time during the summer. At younger ages, the focus will be math and reading, at older ages the focus introduces science.
To attract teachers into the program, the draw will be no behavioral problems in class. I meet teachers every day who talk about how much they would love to teach students who want to learn and not have to spend 90% of their time controlling the behaviors of the 10% of students that are disruptive.
The challenge of this program to society is two-fold. Funding, it will cost more to offer up to 600 hours of "more school" per year. But I think the payoff will be huge. Secondly, it will require everyone to accept, you can't help everyone at least under this kind of program. This is a targeted program to help poor children whose parents are committed to their child learning and children that are not disruptive in the classroom to maximize their potential. It does not say, you can't seek other approaches for poor children that don't meet this criterion, only that this program is not for them.
I have seen a version of this approach work at a charter school. 75% of the children enrolled came from families living below the poverty line and the vast majority of students were minorities and disproportionately black. 94% of these children were accepted into college on graduation. The answer is not complicated... "more school" including "algebra".
