For Immediate Release

March 15, 2022

SAN DIEGO, CA -- March 15, 2022 On March 14, 2022, Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER) issued an action alert, urging California parents and concerned citizens to reject the newly published "Second Field Review Draft of the 2022 California Mathematics Framework." Alarmingly similar to the controversial first draft, this updated draft is still firmly based upon an overarching goal of equity, weaponized to accomplish a political edict of dismantling "inequitable structures" and eliminate advanced tracks.

"Amidst a crisis of low performance in California's public education, the State Department of Education has chosen to disregard broad-based demands for quality and excellence by insisting on pushing a new math framework wrapped in equity," commented Frank Xu, president of CFER. "The essence of such an anti-merit statewide framework is to lower standards in the name of equal outcomes, which could have disastrous ramifications on the quality of public education. The world is rapidly changing. America needs competent engineers, scientists, mathematicians and other STEM talents, more than ever. We simply can't allow public education to keep spinning downwards!"

CFER's action alert pinpoints two major issues with the second draft of the math framework. First, it is pedagogically and ideologically aligned with the dogma of equity, advocating for certain ways to teach math that "promote racial justice and create space for students with a wide range of social identities to feel a sense of belonging." (Lines 80-82, Chapter 2). Second, under the pretense of a growth mindset, the framework suggests limiting multiple math pathways and accelerated tracks. This attack on merit is also done in the name of equity, as the authors argue "[s]tudents of color, recent immigrants, and those from low-income families have been routinely 'tracked down' into less challenging, rote-oriented coursework that is also generally less well-taught." (Lines 157-59, Chapter 9).

Overall, by assuming that students are held back "in a disproportionate manner on the basis of their race, ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic background," (Lines 550-51, Chapter 9), the framework projects an erroneous bigotry of low expectations on these student groups. Centered around investigating "big ideas" rather than following detailed content standards, the draft purports to reimagine math with a misguided goal to "respond to the structural barriers put in the place of mathematics success." Against the backdrops of declining math proficiency among California's K-12 students, the equity-themed math framework is playing with fire by conducting an ideological experiment on our next generation.