Edu

on Is Algebra Necessary?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/is-algebra-necessary.html?smid=pl-share

'[D]efenses of algebra ...are... unsupported by research or evidence, or based on wishful logic...It would be better to reduce not expand the mathematics we ask young people to imbibe'

I was interested, that research would be explained, faulty logic analyzed. A page of evidence follows implicating algebra in the high school dropout rate and the college dropout rate.

In most colleges, out of the 40 courses taken to get a bachelors degree only one needs to be a math class (and maybe one a science course). They are often classes like the author speaks of - citizen statistics or the philosophy, history or art of math. The problem is, in order to be eligible to take that one math class, you have to pass the accuplacer, the placement test most incoming college freshman must take. If you fail it you have to take algebra.