Teachers with unusual credentials are not conjured instantly out of thin air. There is an advertising and interviewing and hiring process. I suggest the author have an open discussion with someone in the administration about the faculty search for this position, and all of the other priorities that the hiring team is facing, how many hours of labor each hire typically takes and the size of the team. I don't know, but suspect that they are doing the best they can with the resources they have.

While the Palo Alto district is one of the better funded districts in the state, it also has very high labor costs. I suspect they are not as flush with labor resources as simple dollar signs might imply...

In an earlier announcement, Austin said the reason for canceling MVC dual enrollment was the lawsuit. But at last night's board meeting, he mentioned nothing of the lawsuit, instead saying the reason was the lack of a credentialed instructor, and that a former teacher had died. A teacher did pass away, but it was over a year ago. Furthermore, he had not taught MVC at PAUSD in years. It seems the teacher this year is alive and well.

So between the 24th and the 28th, the three reasons given for canceling MVC were different in non-overlapping ways.

The most plausible reason is the first one, that it was because of the lawsuit. But MVC dual enrollment has NOTHING to do with the math lawsuit on the Math Placement Act that PAUSD lost. Maybe someone with a big ego felt he needed to exact vengeance on the constituents who cheered the lawsuit, i.e. the math people that he so much loathes. Cutting off MVC without any warning or community discussion seems like a good way to achieve the goals of (1) p*ssing off the math people, and (2) putting a ceiling on high achievers for the purpose of "equity", an oft stated reason for holding back kids in middle school. Maybe he thought long and hard about it and then realized that though telling the true reason felt good to him at the time, it had terrible optics.

All of our neighboring peer districts offer MVC through dual enrollment. It has been offered for many many years at PAUSD. I don't know why PAUSD suddenly discovered a lack of credentialed instructors.

As far as I know, none of the other dual-enrollment classes were affected. Just math.

As one board member said, in her own words, "this is a p*ssing match".

@David: Well yes it would be difficult and hard to find unusually credentialed teacher, if one is searching for a "multi-VARIANT" teacher (per DON Austin).

It likely would help the district to actually search for the correctly credentialed teacher, which is an educator to teach "multi-VARIABLE Calculus"

What I would like to know is where did the current teacher disappear to? Don Austin has a history of bullying teachers out of the district. The principal of Greene Middle School magically suddenly left with little notice at the end of 2021 academic school year. She didn't retire. She didn't go to a different position with promotion. She just quit. No reason given. A week before school ended, she told the parents.

If Don Austin was not so arrogant and attacking of people and actually was a real leader, finding a qualified teacher may not be an issue.

David T:
You raise an excellent and valid point. In fact, any normal organization should welcome a frank and open dialog with its constituents. Except, PAUSD does not fall into such a category. Any attempt to contact them in order to get information or work with them to resolve the issue is unanswered. Just consider the parallel topic regarding middle school math and skip testing. It has taken at least 6 years to try to make a change, and ultimately a group of parents had to address it through a lawsuit in order to get any response from the district.

We live in a city that is full of very qualified people that would be more than happy to work with the district to find good solutions to almost any educational challenge. Yet, it appears that the district’s default approach is to ignore them.

The teacher Austin referenced who used to teach MVC and linalg was Mr. Radu Toma. Along with having a single subject credential for math, Mr. Toma was also an associate professor at Canada college. Sadly, Mr. Toma passed away early last year, not even a year after his retirement. His love of math inspired generations of Paly students and for that we are forever grateful.

However, it is important to note that Mr. Toma stopped teaching these dual enrollment courses almost a decade ago. They were picked up by other Canada faculty who commuted to Paly campus after school. These faculty did not possess any form of K-12 credential from the California CTC. PAUSD eventually switched to offering MVC and linalg through Foothill college. The Foothill faculty member that was teaching the courses does not have a credential from CTC either.

Another fun fact — the Foothill faculty member who used to teach nanotechnology at Paly (another dual enrollment course) did not have a credential from CTC.

You can find the CTC portal to look up current and past teachers' credentials with a quick google.

Thank you, ‘alum2548’, for that detailed summary about past teachers of multivariable calculus. It was obvious even to a person without ‘Common Sense’ that Don’s reference to teaching credentials and deceased teachers had nothing to do with the real reason for canceling the class. Unfortunately, I suspect that the above post by ‘Down the Yellow Brick Road’ hit the nail on the head.

As a follow-up to the post by ‘David T’ I can add that I heard that the district was told that a faculty member from Foothill, which is the community college that PAUSD currently works with for dual enrollment, was traveling to other nearby local schools to teach multivariable, and such an option should be investigated for our schools. However, as I wrote earlier, it fell on deaf ears.

Multi-VARIABLE calculus is foundational across so many engineering and scientific fields, it also power large AI models (chatGPT and others).
Listen to an amazing recent PAUSD alumni --
Web Link

Tuesday's board meeting had two sessions with math-related comments:
-- The MVC fiasco at the open forum:
Web Link
Many well-made comments including by Greg Tanaka (city council member).

-- Agenda item 6A where students and families asked for fair and objective placement in middle school. It was the FIRST TIME the board enforced a 30 speakers cap, many could not be heard.
Web Link

The toxicity by parts of our leadership (and known supporters) towards math and the students who love and enjoy math, is just staggering. They make and repeat claims that were debunked by data and evidence.

They deny the lived experience of those who's passion and strength is in math. Through their distorted lens, math is only about "wanting to beat others or gain status."

They say that math is contrary to wellness. Our County Health Officer refuted that Web Link

They vilify and openly say students that need more math should go to private school, when districts with half the funding of Palo Alto effectively meet more students where they are at.

They say "stopping" math students benefits all, ignoring solid research to the contrary. They say what they do is working. But SBAC data comparing our students objective performance to Los Altos and Cupertino (which meet more students where they are) shows that despite much higher funding, our FLOOR IS LOWER -- more of our disadvantaged (and non-disadvantaged) students fail to meet MINIMUM grade level standards.
Web Link

Multi-VARIABLE calculus is foundational across so many engineering and scientific fields, it also power large AI models (chatGPT and others).
Listen to an amazing recent PAUSD alumni --
Web Link

Tuesday's board meeting had two sessions with math-related comments:
-- The MVC fiasco at the open forum:
Web Link
Many well-made comments including by Greg Tanaka (city council member).

-- Agenda item 6A where students and families asked for fair and objective placement in middle school. It was the FIRST TIME the board enforced a 30 speakers cap, many could not be heard.
Web Link

The toxicity by parts of our leadership (and known supporters) towards math and the students who love and enjoy math, is just staggering. They make and repeat claims that were debunked by data and evidence.

They deny the lived experience of those who's passion and strength is in math. Through their distorted lens, math is only about "wanting to beat others or gain status."

They say that math is contrary to wellness. Our County Health Officer refuted that Web Link

They vilify and openly say students that need more math should go to private school, when districts with half the funding of Palo Alto effectively meet more students where they are at.

They say "stopping" math students benefits all, ignoring solid research to the contrary. They say what they do is working. But SBAC data comparing our students objective performance to Los Altos and Cupertino (which meet more students where they are) shows that despite much higher funding, our FLOOR IS LOWER -- more of our disadvantaged (and non-disadvantaged) students fail to meet MINIMUM grade level standards.
Web Link

[Post removed.]

Thank you also goes to ‘Greene and Paly Parent’, who beat me by posting the link of the recent Paly alum, who spoke so eloquently about the importance of the multivariable class, and the travesty of canceling it. Note, that this came from a person who has no skin in the game. He is already done with college, but it looks like quite a few years away from having his own kids attend our high schools.

I also want to challenge our school board members: Jennifer DiBrienza, Jesse Ladomirak, Todd Collins, Shounak Dharap, and Shana Segal, to make an inquiry into whether superintendent Austin purposely misled the board and all listeners to the meeting regarding the cancellation of the class. At least according to ‘Alum2548’ there are precedents for how to deal with the credentialing (or lack thereof) of the college teachers involved in various dual enrollment courses, and the recently deceased math teacher apparently had not taught the class for a decade.

MVC is also beautiful and fun. I don't know why it is being portrayed in PAUSD as the ultimate form of masochism.

Does the board just accept everything Don Austin tells them or do they ever do their own research? To say the class cannot be held because the teacher of the class retired is ludicrous and anyone in the Paly math department should be able to back up that claim.

[Portion removed.]

Web Link

"Education code (EC) sections 48800 and 76004 authorize such programs and allow college instructors to serve students participating in dual or concurrent enrollment programs without requiring an appropriate credential issued by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing for the assignment."

Perhaps there are solutions to this credentialing issue.

I have no idea who ‘alum2548 is’, but I feel an immediate kinship with her/him. As I wrote before, our district is full of people who want to come up with solutions as opposed to creating obstacles. It’s very refreshing to see a person who is familiar with the background of who taught what at our schools and can also reference the appropriate education code and regulations. Imagine if our school district could provide us with such insights. That being said, I would think that it is ‘Common Sense’ that a college professor can teach a high school dual enrollment class. In any case, respect for ‘alum2548’.

I wish our math-obsessed community would get as riled up/excited over things other than math in our schools- mental health, helping underperforming students, and special education.

Hi ‘Talltree’. Thank you for your comments.

I do not think it is a matter of a “math-obsessed community being riled up/excited” more than others. I suspect you just notice this community more because we live in a city with a large number of STEM educated people that discuss this topic. It is no coincidence that 43% of the students on their own in a school-administered survey expressed direct interest in taking the canceled class that is the subject of this post.

So, there are a lot of people in this city that care about math education and write about it, but this does not mean that they do not consider topics such as mental health. As an example, see the above link provided by ‘Greene and Paly Parent’ referencing the comments made by Dr. Cody at the school board meeting.

Finally, I would not consider myself to be part of any “math-obsessed community.” This topic is the first time I personally have “publicly” spoken or written about math in our schools. What the school district decided to do, coupled with what appears to be at best, highly misleading comments by the superintendent, forced me to speak up.

@Talltree: That is classic "whataboutism". We can't complain about __ because something else is a "bigger" issue.

As a whole, the Palo Alto community DO get "riled up" about lots of things. Have you attended board meetings recently? People have been coming in droves to complain about the lack of busses to Stanford West, the mod/severe rooms in special ed being moved out of Ohlone, and other things.

Now, obviously the math group isn't going to be coming out for the Stanford West busses, just like the Stanford West busses isn't going to come out for the special ed families. Individual people will and do, but these are very lose groups organizing around one specific issue.

Okay okay. Here is the real context.
--
The Chronicle of Higher Education has a recent piece on Jo Boaler, the controversial education professor who's ideology is at the heart of the radical PAUSD and SFUSD changes.

"The Divider: Jo Boaler of Stanford is leading a math-ed revolution. Critics say her claims don't add up."

Web Link

--
SFUSD's math is in terrible shape, both before and after their interventions. PAUSD is chasing SF's math ed policy, believe it or not.

Jennifer DiBrienza was a student of Boaler, and has 100% drunk and is spreading the highly controversial Kool-Aid. This is related to the CA Math Framework which had hundreds and hundreds of STEM professionals signing petitions (mostly all left-leaning folks, like me) in bewildered and staunch opposition.

--
Here's another interesting recent opinion piece from the SF Examiner:

"A chimera of equity: SFUSD must reckon with its math education failures"

Web Link

--
PAUSD is chasing SF's policies out of ideology, seriously misguided (albeit sincerely held) that eliminating rigor helps the cohorts of kids who aren't doing well. Sigh.

This is completely all orthogonal to the Maga/Woke war going down. According to the Stanford Review, Boaler called the police on an African American Berkeley STEM professor (who opposes her radical ed framework) when he posted public records showing her exorbitant consulting fees.

"Stanford education prof calls the cops on Berkeley prof who exposed her $5000/hour consulting fee"

Web Link

--
In short, this is the real context for the Board and Austin cancelling advanced math. Science will be next. We need to educate or replace this Board and Superintendent on this issue real fast. Science and Math Are Real.

This above is a very interesting brief by ‘S Underwood’.

Through the board meeting and this thread, we have so far been presented with four reasons for why multivariable is being canceled. Let me try to summarize:

Don Austin: A teacher passed away.

‘Common Sense’ : Incompetence by PAUSD in (i) not appreciating the interest of its own students, (ii) not understanding the importance and fundamentals of the topic, and (iii) not being able to schedule a class that all other local districts offer.

‘Down the yellow brick road’: Revenge by PAUSD for the loss of a lawsuit about the Math Placement Act.

‘S. Underwood’: “Jo Boaler’ism” where PAUSD (and the board) is putting us on a path to cancel advanced math (with science to follow).

I wish we could have a poll among those options, but all four of them a very sad.

So many great comments on this topic (with special thanks to Down the yellow brick road, alum2548 and S. Underwood)!

- PAUSD passive "job search" could confirm the retaliation claim--they never admit they make any mistakes! It seems to be another attempt to "lower the ceiling." Lower achieving students needs more rigor, more expectation, not less.

- Is there any indication of research depth from our district/BOE? Do they ever seek to educate our community? It all seems behind the scenes.

- As mentioned, if skilled in calculus, HS math teachers with MS degrees meet the teaching requirement, as do college math profs (no need for a CT credential)

- Assuming it is well-taught, this MV Calculus online course description makes it seem like a course we should offer yearly for dual enrollment (not sure if Los Altos HS's is DE?). It is almost a stand alone course which is seen by many to be easier than Calc I/II and leads to greater understanding of differentiation/integration. Here is a good summaary by an excited Far Side mathematician:
Web Link

- Low expectations and low rigor: Here is a dense commentary on our district and how they undermine teachers. A lot to wade through!
Web Link

Relatively new info from California Department of Education:

Web Link

Thank you. It is annoying how they don't consistently use "dual enrollment" when discussing courses. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don'.

I could be misinterpreting this, but it sounds as if credentialing is required if the high school student is not taking the minimum 5-6 courses required by state. If the dual enrollment course is needed in order to claim their full attendance portion (for state funds) then the teacher would need to be CTA credentialed. Is that true???

Thank you @alum2548 re: the clarification on the CTC. You're brilliant!

Web Link
Education code (EC) sections 48800 and 76004 authorize such programs and allow college instructors to serve students participating in dual or concurrent enrollment programs ---> WITHOUT REQUIRING <--- an appropriate credential issued by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing for the assignment.

This means that Austin's "clarification" at the March 28th board meeting was a big fat lie.
Web Link
Am I missing something?

I compared an earlier version of the Paly 2023-24 course catalog from Feb 9th, and ONLY MVC and Linear Algebra were canceled.

It looks really really really really really bad also that he initially said it was related to the math lawsuit.

As Austin tweeted, #brave.

Clearly, there are solutions, as all our surrounding schools (Mountain View, Los Altos, Menlo Park/Atherton, and Sequoia High in Redwood City) include the class in their course catalogs. From the link provided by ‘Fact Check’ the approaches seem to range from having a local school teacher present to deciding how the instructional time is allocated.

I initially wrote that a student always had the freedom to take the class outside of PAUSD. Well, if one wants to include it on the Paly/Gunn transcript, prior permission is (of course) required. However, with the new rules that have just been made public (very quietly), there is little incentive to ask for permission to get the class included on the transcript. PAUSD has now decided not to count external classes as part of the GPA (but just credit / no-credit).

This seems to also include the UC Scout classes that I know to be very popular with many of our students. My takeaway is that our school district is going out of its way to make things more difficult instead of simpler.

I do not understand why we continue to elect school board members that refuse to take their fiduciary duty seriously and get a better Superintendent. Austin infuriates parents, ignores reasonable requests from teachers, is despised by students (because he often manages to insert himself when students behave in "insubordinate" ways), and from what I can tell, is not liked by most administration. His policies lack common sense; he lies incessantly; and the only two things he seems to care about are (1) his reputation (which he unsuccessfully manages) and (2) revenge against any/all who cross him.

Every meeting we learn of more of his bad decisions. He fired (gave "optional" retirement packages to) some of the most beloved teachers because they were **too experienced**; closed the schools early and opened late (despite lying about it); changed the school schedule so there are now many 4-day weeks with school letting out at 4.30 PM on many days; and has made no noticeable progress in addressing ongoing issues, including non-exclusively: bullying, sexual harassment and assault, racial exclusion, over- and under-identification of learning differences, underfunding of accommodations for kids with special needs, opposition to teacher housing (which would help with recruiting), and an almost sadistic lack of concern for students (and sometimes parents).

In a time of crisis nationally and internationally, when so many kids have faced such unprecedented challenges and were deprived of significant and culturally essential rites of passage (graduation ceremonies, freshman year, senior year, prom, class trips, and so on), Austin's choices consistently demonstrate a lack of common sense, empathy, or compassion. Now he deprives students of a popular class to make a point that-what?-advocating for your children is not tolerated?

The School Board can & must replace him. Austin has caused problems for years and we need to force the Board to take responsibility for the appointee they protect.

Palo Alto is a "math obsessed community." It wasn't math obsessed when I was a PAUSD student, but it certainly was when I was a PAUSD parent. This thread is a perfect example of how "math obsessed" some Palo Altans are. It's a math class, not your first- born child. Palo Altans do get "riled up" about a lot of things. Is something in the water?

If there isn't a credentialed teacher to teach the class, the class needs to be cancelled. And the mature thing to do is accept it. Grow up. This isn't the first class to be cancelled, nor will it be the last.

‘Jennifer’, thank you for your comment. I have tried to argue that this is not a matter of “obsession” but rather a strength in numbers. The recent school math survey supports this. We simply have a lot of students that want to pursue studies in computer science, engineering, physics, economics, etc, for which this class is fundamental.

Honestly, I would never have posted my original message if I had received an honest and transparent message from the school district regarding the cancellation. Instead, they wrote that it will now be easy for the students to schedule their own class, or spoke about deceased teachers, irrelevant to the cancellation.

Several people on this thread have posted that there may be solutions to deal with credentialing. Given what you refer to as obsession, and I as overwhelming interest in the community, should the school district not exhaust every possible avenue to avoid the cancellation of a popular and important class? Maybe they did try, but if so, they certainly did not communicate this.

Jennifer -- Pretexts and feigned ignorance do indeed drive folks batty. It's called gas-lighting.

Gas-lighting does extreme damage to relationships, schools, institutions, communities. Gas-lighting is a rank power language typical of bullies.

An actual judge (not an opinion) ruled that Austin and the Board were breaking the law in artificially holding kids back. And a few weeks later they cancel a popular and highly desired advanced math class saying they can't "find" a teacher? C'mon already.

The misdirections (we'll call them misdirections) from the Board and Austin have to stop, on this and many other important issues.

I know about the old Math Wars, the Tiger Mom era, etc. and know there’s more to life than Math…however, students should always be encouraged to learn and achieve to the greatest extent of their abilities; Math does provide a strong foundation for one’s future, furthermore, traditional Math is crystal clear in concepts and homework and grading (unless watered down or graded for “effort”).

PAUSD should be consistent in practices and course offerings with nearby high achieving public districts and schools: for example, Lynbrook, Los Altos High, Mission San Jose, etc.

It is incorrect to place everyone in one level/room for Math, and to downplay variations in skill, effort and interest. Why make a teacher slow down a class?

Why is PAUSD twisting itself in a pretzel for no reason other than to claim to support a vague, always unclear concept of “equity.” I get that the state of CA is screwed up and dissolved in nonsensical byreaucracy, but please let’s try to offer challenging curriculum.

To follow up on "Anonymous," differentiation for math is a very good thing, and that is usually created by getting into the appropriate lane. If you've ever been in a too-difficult class you know it feels as if you're drowning. If anything, we could be making it easier/more flexible to switch lanes up or down for academic mobility.

There was a parent years ago who would post excellent summaries of the large surveys. I remember one that confirmed students in more rigorous classes are more engaged and have better mental health. Of course there are outliers, but who doesn't check out if the material is already well known, moves at a snail's pace, and you feel like you'd rather be playing basketball! Parents need to be informed/reasonable about their expectations for their students, but dropping the academic floor for all is presumptuous and not very respectful of differences.

@ferdinand, what you're describing is known as the "expertise reversal effect" (ERE)
Web Link
"Strong evidence has emerged that the effectiveness of [Instructional] techniques depends very much on levels of learner expertise. Instructional techniques highly effective with inexperienced learners can lose their effectiveness and even have negative consequences when used with more experienced learners."

Another important effect is the well-known Big Fish Little Pond Effect (BFLPE)
Web Link
Essentially, your self confidence in a classroom depends on your relative performance. At a given level of skill, if you are at the top of your class, you feel more confident. Conversely, if you are at the bottom of your class then you feel less confident.

PAUSD, SFUSD, and increasingly many other school districts are drinking the discredited Boaler Koolaid and adopting discredited pedagogical theories that are diametrically opposed to the ERE and BFPLE.
Web Link
Kids 3 years below grade level are forced to be with kids 3+ years above.

Our student board representatives complained bitterly at the March 14 board meeting about high-performing accelerated kids in their classrooms, saying that they should not be allowed to accelerate and should go to private school. The presence of accelerated kids made them feel bad about themselves and caused them stress. They said this to the applause of those in the audience fighting against acceleration. Austin tweeted #brave. But isn't their lived experience EXACTLY an argument against de-laning? What the PAUSD board and administration applaud is self-contradictory. Furthermore, teachers who are asked about de-laning privately say it's a disaster but that the administration ignores their voices.

PAUSD's "equity" policies are producing the exact opposite outcomes.
SFUSD outcomes are catastrophic. Web Link

To ‘Ferdinand’ and ‘Anonymous’, thank you for your support. To the rest of the parents of the 43% of Paly/Gunn students that expressed interest in the class, I also encourage you to speak up and show support on this forum and/or in future school board meetings.

I know that I earlier challenged our school board members to look into this issue, but according to at least a few posters on this thread, they may be supportive of this cancellation (this is a topic for the next school board election, but I digress ….).

Hence, I am suggesting that Palo Alto Weekly’s Zoe Morgan, who has written several articles about education and our schools, gets the district on record and asks (i) what drove the cancellation of the multivariable calculus class, what effort did the district put into finding a teacher for the class, and what options could be explored to maintain it?, and (ii) if it is a coincidence that a 10+ year policy to include grades from approved external courses on Paly/Gunn transcripts is discontinued the same month that a judge states that the district must approve external math classes (and the district ironically tells its students to take multivariable externally).

30 years ago, my high school's highest math course was pre-calc. Calculus was considered a college level course. APs were just starting to be a popular option in schools. Today, Calculus is available to take if you have the requirements, which many students do over summer. Amazing how the higher level maths are making it down to high school. Nothing wrong with that, just a sign of the times.

As the comments above clearly demonstrate, the politics around our District offering or not offering the course are fraught. There likely won't be a solution anytime soon. What do we do about the students who are ready for Multivariable Calculus and/or Linear Algebra right now, starting in the 23/24 or 24/25 school year?

For any student who completes BC Calculus by the end of 11th grade or earlier and is ready for higher level math, why can't we just make some kind of agreement with another local district that offers the class, in particular MVLA, where we send a few students down there every year?It would work logistically if the course were offered during Period 1 at MVLA and the student had the Period 2 slot empty in their Paly or Gunn schedule. Another prerequisite would be that the student or parent would have to agree to be responsible for transportation between the schools.

Not a long-term solution, but certainly workable with the right mindset.

@ staying home, some elite schools have additional math classes like differential equations, complex analysis, differential geometry, Shannon information theory, etc.
But, I don't have any expectation that PAUSD would or should ever have such offerings. Maybe in another 30 years? (or, by then, we would move algebra 1 to senior year, if Boaler lives to be 100).
PAUSD appears to object to offering even MVC in senior year and canceled it.

As a private college counselor wrote in a different thread, colleges *do* take into account classes beyond calculus, in contrast to what PAUSD says. PAUSD says that "college admissions offices do not want to see extra math on your transcript".
Web Link
In contrast, the co-director of undergraduate admissions at Harvard says
Web Link

I would take the above with a strong caveat that math is not the only thing they look at, nor is it an expectation that viable applicants have math beyond calculus. I do agree with the PAUSD leadership that kids should not stress themselves with math if it is not their passion or strength.

Staying Home--me too, pre-calc and no APs! But times have changed and (imo) our district leadership would be better servants if they embraced a less political, more open-minded, and greater intellectual vision for those students who seek it. We have a district with an extremely wide spectrum of parent educational levels, probably from illiterate to double PhD. We can't be all things to all people, but we shouldn't be reflexively negative w/o doing our work and considering possibilities.

I was shocked, but I looked just now and even my rural high school offers students multivariable calculus at the local Math & Science Center! I wouldn't, however, trade it for my 9th grade algebra teacher who was a sweet grandma with an adorable sense of humor (and great algebra skills).

Thank you, ‘Staying Home’, for your suggestion. In my opinion, it illustrates the desperate solutions we parents are trying to come up with to enable our children to take this math class in a regular school environment. However, your proposal face many obstacles, including significant scheduling coordination from our high schools. This is a big ask since they have apparently been muzzled by the district to the point where basic requests for clarification remain unanswered.

What I am going to say next may likely be unpopular with many of you, but I find the silence on this topic from our parent-school organizations (PTA & PiE) astounding, and I speak as a “card-carrying” member whose family has paid its many $ 1,000's dues over the years. With your annual large checks in support of PAUSD you carry a large stick. There is no reason to believe that the 43% of high school students that are interested in this class is not representative of the district as a whole. Why don’t you bring this class cancellation up with the district?

I heard Gunn is the #1 public high school in California. Is that true? If so, how can it not offer important math classes that are offered at other high schools?

I want to respond to Common Sense, who thanks me above - for reasons to stay anonymous I must be vague but I can say I live in Palo Alto, have witnessed many iterations of math instruction, curriculum, and policies in CA and have an adult child who received a Mathematics BA from a challenging university without prepping, tutoring in high school as some did then (*student finished high school at an international school but had some PAUSD experience*). Student was very busy with other things so had minimal AMC/competition experience, though.
This person still loves math and uses it in their fulfilling Tech profession..interestingly did BC Calc test (got a 5) without a specific course or tutoring, so was a self-starter. Had a regular though well-taught with high expectations strong Calc class as senior. They may have covered additional topics, w/o asking, I can’t confirm. The more the merrier, though.
Achievement of skills in math is NOT just for arcane PhDs, as may be portrayed by some apologists trying to reduce course offerings.
I KNOW my child would say that there should be differentiation and inspiration. My child did do peer tutoring at the two high schools (PALY and the other one; this is rewarding for tutor and tutee).
Do our high schools still have tutoring programs?
Dumbing down curriculum or policies is not the answer!
I had a disjointed math education myself, partly owing to moving states, but the clearest most direct instruction from a strong teacher that moved learning along was the most beneficial.
I recall middle school as having very poor math here, and this could have been damaging along with the then-huge classes. I would try to hire the best teachers.
Mr. Toma appeared to be a strong leader at PALY -
Sadly the state of CA is tripping over itself to fail in math, very unfortunate

‘Joey’: The short answer is that canceling the class will not prevent the majority of the students from taking it. It will just be a worse experience that is more stressful, time-consuming, and costly, but parents will find a way to enroll their children in an external, maybe online, course. However, our school district will still get the indirect credit that we have students taking the class (and being good at math).

As it comes to the ranking of our schools, my personal opinion is that PAUSD and Paly/Gunn’s reputation rides on the back of strong students and money. First, we cannot dispute the actual brilliance of our Silicon Valley children who work very hard, get high scores on standardized tests, and ultimately get into good colleges, all of which are easily quantifiable when comparing high schools. Secondly, you should not ignore the resourcefulness and financing of so many parents in terms of supporting their children with external tutors, classes, their own instruction, and access to various summer programs and research.

Yes, obviously, both Paly and Gunn are excellent schools with strong teachers that provide our students with a great foundation. However, it is my opinion that at the district office, they put more obstacles in place than actual support. This is particularly true when it comes to math education, as evidenced by the recent lawsuit loss, which was followed by an immediate retaliation in terms of how external classes are counted, and maybe also this class cancellation (all of which you can read above in this thread and a parallel one on the lawsuit). Some have argued on both threads that school board members are also to blame for this.

@Common Sense - PIE and PTA are merely mouthpieces of the district. You'll never hear their dissent with the district.

The district is looking at bringing in more non-taxpaying students in order to fill seats. This will cost the district money and resources. This money could be used for the very same purposes for which PIE and PTA raise money. Instead of asking the district to save money, PIE and PTA will continue to ask the parents to give more.

When have you ever heard PIE or PTA publicly stand up against the district?

‘Anonymous’: Our children sound very alike! My child is also primarily a self-studier who, throughout high school, simply has relied on the lessons provided by the school and textbooks. This is why it is so frustrating that we now have to figure out a way to schedule a class outside of school, likely without any type of camaraderie with peer students. Yes, the high schools still have peer tutoring after school, and I know that my kid is offering help to other students in math. This is also the best way to reinforce the material.

Though I have referred to it in this thread, I am not part of the group that addressed the Math Placement Act, nor am I active in the movement to stop “Jo Boaler’ism” from spreading to PAUSD, and, worse, all of California. Fortunately, numerous leading scientists and educators have signed on to stop this madness from propagating. I certainly hope that they will prevail.

I used to donate generously to PIE. Not anymore. For all I know, it goes to paying for legal fees for PAUSD to fight parents suing the district to stop holding back kids in math. Lawsuits on which PAUSD has a 100% loss record.

Say it isn’t so, ‘Morgan’

I plead some ignorance because, as I have stated above, I really haven’t been active in the various fights to right the wrongs within our district. This multivariable class cancellation was finally the straw that broke this camel’s back. All I can say is that if I do not see any response from PTA and more so from PiE, I for one, have written my last check.

There is a STEM school on the Oracle campus called D Tech that works really hard on individualization of students' educations and on autonomy. If students have an interest like karate or Japanese that isn't taught at the school, they're allowed to take the course elsewhere.

Multi-variable calculus, differential equations, other math, could be handled via independent study at any number of online or in-person educational facilities, or by dual enrollment at the community college. I honestly do not understand why there isn't a bus to take Gunn students to Foothill for classes and a better agreement to allow Gunn students to take courses there so they aren't just last in line to register if they aren't Middle College.

The Palo Alto school system reminds me more and more of the Kurt Vonnegut short story "Harrison Bergeron". They continue to dumb down classes, pretend that all students are the same in every class and aim to not "over-educate" students to keep the disparity manageable for the teachers. This school board seems to think a successful school district should impose mandated equality.

They spend endless time and money on helping students falling behind but constantly throw road blocks in front of and ignore and discourage kids that want to excel. If they spent half as much time and money on higher performing groups they could find them appropriate teachers. Especially in this area. They just don't want to.

As an experienced PAUSD parent/alum, elite college admissions consultant with a national practice, retired lawyer and Harvard/Stanford alum, I would like to add the following points to the conversation:

Short-term: students and families should use available means to navigate the current environment to obtain the best outcomes for themselves, as they do not have the luxury of time. In a prior comment thread I made some suggestions of how families might pursue this if math or other passions are not being satisfied by current district offerings. Web Link

Longer-term: in my view whoever is superintendent generally holds the line for whatever the long-term stakeholders (i.e., teaching staff) want. The same with the school principals. Over the years we have had a continuous, revolving door of superintendents and principals who take the heat from the community.

I value the excellent teachers that we have and am content to agree or disagree depending on the circumstances; I do not have a dog in the current fight about MVC other than to advise that advanced math is indeed valuable for college prep and suggest that a public school district should follow the Ed Code and make flexible educational pathways available to all students.

However, one should realize that the staff departments are an enduring silent stakeholder behind the scenes. Their input is obviously quite valuable and necessary but query whether it should be done in public, where the principal and department heads could be called by the board to make a presentation and recommendation on relevant topics.

For example, in 2011, the Paly math department wrote what they intended as a private letter to the school board and superintendent to oppose UC a-g compliant math requirements through Alg2. Only substantial community pressure at the Board level will achieve a different result, as occurred in the above example.

‘Silver Linings’: I just looked up the D Tech school. I bet it would get some attention on Churchill Ave (as there is already concern about falling enrollment) if a similar charter school were to open in Palo Alto.

I also agree that a coordinated bus option to Foothill College could be a viable solution (still with challenges, but easier than what ‘Local Wisdom’ suggested above). Ironically about 1/3 of the Open Forum at last week’s board meeting was about how the district is failing with Stanford West buses, so it looks like scheduling school buses may also exceed their capabilities.

Again, I just want to reemphasize that according to Fooothill’s course schedule for the winter semester, there is a professor who goes to both Mountain View and Los Altos high schools for in-person lectures during the school day. I looked him up on the California teacher credentialing (CTC) website that ‘alum2548’ referenced above, and I don’t see any special credentials listed. Why should we not have a similar solution? As stated by ‘tmp’, they don’t want to, and it is an active attempt to undermine our students.

TO PAUSD STUDENTS:

Community college classes are COLLEGE CLASSES on your transcript. You get the same GPA bump as AP classes, but college classes are typically more respectful of your TIME. You get to list them as advanced/college classes on your college applications.

If you plan to attend a UC, you can earn actual college credit towards your degree. My DS had senior standard at UC by sophomore year because of >a year of college credit taken at CC's in high school. UC Transferable courses are the SAME course taught at UC's and you get college credit for the course as opposed to MAYBE getting an equivalent credit (with limits) for APs. You also get double high school credit.

In a district of declining enrollments, I strongly suggest students and families start looking at some of these external (including public) resources, because it is possible to BOTH improve and diversity educational opportunities for ALL while also reducing costs and dealing smoothly with declining enrollments. (I personally think declining enrollments are a perfect opportunity to vacate a whole school and rebuild all facilities new one at a time with the huge bond pot rather than flushing good money after bad like before.)

Students: you can currently dual enroll at community college classes, but you are last in line for registration. Plus, your high school schedule probably doesn't leave room.

Push the district (and/or state) to work something out with the community college so that students can more smoothly take community college courses, even without enrolling in middle college--including multivariable calculus.

Lastly, if you want to take a year at community college and return to high school, you can take the CHSPE (high school equivalence-but NOT a GED) and attend CC and/or work--state law requires schools to take you back without penalizing you. Your college credits get you double HS credit, and you can take more diverse/advanced classes, then graduate with your class.

@silver linings, part of the fire drill here is that Don Austin declared proudly that as a result of the lawsuit, they "fixed" off-campus confusion with weighted GPAs by completely eliminating outside GPA contributions to your PAUSD GPA. Previously if you took something like Convex Optimization from an outside provider, you could get a +5.0 averaged into your PAUSD GPA. Now, it counts for nothing. Under Dual Enrollment, it *would* still count. Except now Don Austin canceled all Dual Enrollment MATH classes, thus nullifying any GPA contribution from math.
Web Link
Austin calls this extra GPA boost cheating. The University of California says explicitly on their web page
Web Link
"UC-transferable college courses that fall within the A-G subject areas, including those completed through dual enrollment, will earn an extra point in the UC freshman admission GPA calculation"

I was reading the minutes of the Dual Enrollment Committee and saw that they were even discussing EXPANDING the Dual Enrollment program, as of March 15th. No discussion on canceling math.
Web Link

In the minutes of the DE commitee, they say that on-campus DE teachers need high school accreditation, but I think that is actually incorrect, due to
Web Link
"Education code (EC) sections 48800 and 76004 authorize such programs and allow college instructors to serve students participating in dual or concurrent enrollment programs without requiring an appropriate credential issued by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing for the assignment."
Unless I'm mistaken, this means that premise under which Austin removed MVC is false, aside from the lawsuit.

@Joey school ranking is related to but not the same as student outcomes. Metrics can be gamed, for example, by holding back kids to repeat classes they have already taken, they can boost test scores and thus their rankings. I don't know if this is moving the needle at PAUSD, and is speculation on my part.

Here is some data on UC admissions:
Web Link

This is astonishing to the point that I'm wondering if the data is wrong, but we see that, for the 2022 term, of applicants to UC Berkeley, example PAUSD acceptance rates are
Gunn had 0/57 = 0.00% white, 27/173 = 15.6 Asian, 4/17 = 23.6% Latinx.
Paly had 7/74 = 9.5% white, 21/139 = 15.1% Asian, and 0% Historically Underrepresented.

Go back to 2010,
Gunn 15/72=20.8% white, 50/117 =42.7% Asian, NAN% HUR (0/0 applicants)
Paly 9/67=13.4% white, 28/72 =38.9% Asian, 0% HUR (0/18 applicants)

tidbit: 2022 Paly white UCLA = 0/89 = 0.0000%, 2010 9/64 = 14.0%

There may be other things going on, such as geographical quotas. There are political factors at play.

The last thing any Palo Alto homeowner should be concerned about is the ratings of PA schools. Gunn is #1, and Paly #6 in the state. Property values in PA are over the top, including our home.

I think politics plays a role as well. PA is a liberal area, and that's how liberal's role. Equality for all. Everyone is equal. Excelling in math is not tolerated. it will hurt the feelings of others.

Good luck!

Do as I say, not as I do is an MO w/ the board who often send their own children to private schools or who sit in judgment of parents concerned about college admissions while sending their own to pricey $80-90k per year private colleges. I consider most politicians to be hypocritical in their actions and that would include many in PAUSD leadership.

‘Down the yellow brick road’: Thank you for reminding us that there is indeed a PAUSD committee focused on Dual Enrollment.

While I believe the guidelines should be the same for a class like Multivariable Calc, the charter of the committee appears to be focused on the College and Career Access Pathway (CCAP) program. This a program that strives to provide underrepresented student populations a pathway from high school to community college and ultimately to a 4-year degree. The memorandum from the second committee meeting (3/15/2023) references exploring models from other California schools (Arvind High School, Avanal High School, Delano High School, Dominguez High School), none of which I am familiar with (note, that some of these schools come up with an alternative spelling in a google search).

Hopefully, the committee can also provide the correct requirements regarding teacher credentialing for any dual enrollment class (while also benchmarking against some of the other local schools mentioned previously in this thread). The committee is supposed to provide its recommendations by next week (April 15, 2023).

@yellow brick road

Thank you for sharing these details. That's a good point about the UC website.

Students who will be applying to UC's need to realize that the UC's have their own way of calculating GPA in order to make things fair. What's important is the GPA for the accomplishment. They will take the transcript and record and calculate their own internal GPA using the transparent criteria they list on their site. Our students may find their GPA's are actually higher according to UC's than the district puts on the transcript.

That said, I am APPALLED at Austin's attitude if what you say is documented. Keeping students who are capable from meeting their potentials, while putting them through a gauntlet of busy work taking up all hours of their day, causes depression. There's seems to be this shallow, silly idea that opportunity is depressing, when the opposite is true.

‘Down the yellow brick road’ & ‘Silver Linings’:

Without turning this topic into a discussion about UC admissions, I think it is worth highlighting the impact advanced classes have on admissions. With UCs being test blind and only relying sparsely on letters of reference, the few remaining quantitative items in their “holistic review” are the GPA and the number of advanced classes taken, which also boosts the GPA through weighting. For example, for UC Berkeley, a respectable grade 10/11 UC weighted, non-capped GPA in the 4.0 – 4.2 range has an average admission rate of only 8% over the last 3 years, which increases more than 3x to 26% with a GPA in the 4.4 – 4.6 range. The admissions rates into the College of Engineering at Berkeley are about half of the full university at 4% and 14%, for the 4.0 – 4.2 and 4.4 - 4.6 GPA ranges, respectively. Easy access to H, AP, & DE classes and fair grading (in particular on AP where there are corresponding standardized tests) are therefore very important for our students.

One topic of interest may be CCAP vs non-CCAP dual enrollment courses. The district entered into a CCAP agreement with Foothill around 2019: Web Link

The first paragraph of the MOU describes the purpose of such CCAP agreements:

“Whereas, Assembly Bill No. 288 (Ed. Code § 76004) approved by the Governor and filed with the Secretary of State on October 8th, 2015 allows the governing board of a community college district to enter into a College and Career Access Pathways (CCAP) partnership with the governing board of a school district for the purpose of offering or expanding dual enrollment opportunities for students who may not already be college bound or who are underrepresented in higher education, with the goal of developing seamless pathways from high school to community college for career technical education or preparation for transfer, improving high school graduation rates, or helping high school pupils achieve college and career readiness, [Sec. 2(a)]”

Math courses like MVC and linalg are not mentioned anywhere in this MOU. So when these math courses were switched from Cañada to Foothill, it seems like it may have been under a separate agreement. These slides from Foothill describe different types of dual enrollment models: Web Link

Note the “Singleton” category which includes Calculus at MVLA. If we assume PAUSD’s MVC agreement was similar, then it would not seem to fall under CCAP Ed code. According to the following leaflet, there appears to be a different set of provisions for where and when non-CCAP DE courses can take place, who they can be taught by, how apportionment can be claimed, etc: Web Link

@ Common Sense, ah right, I forgot about that. Since canceling the SAT and ACT student applications are even more reliant on GPA.

It is said the UCs recalculate your GPA so it doesn't matter if community college, H, AP, and DE grades are not on your PAUSD transcript. But the same argument can be applied in reverse: then WHY NOT calculate the weighted GPA. I love it when the same argument can be used to support the opposing view.

A few years ago there was a wGPA war. PAUSD backed down when a student demonstrated that she lost a scholarship because of the anti-wGPA policy. Some colleges do NOT recompute the GPA.

But PAUSD (Austin) is finding ways creative ways to chip away at the wGPA, such as banning external classes.

This is all in the misguided notion of making all students the same, as given in the PAUSD Equity Statement:
“The educational policies, practices, and programs as well as attitudes, beliefs, and values that reflect explicit efforts to reduce disparities that flow along the lines of race/ethnicity, disability, and socioeconomic status such that demographics no longer predict outcomes.”
Web Link

This is all so sad. We have a Board that is completely incoherent. We have an admin team that thinks they know best always, so they suppress, counterpunch and gaslight. Policy decisions are presented as a fait accompli when they come up to the Board, then they vote unanimously. This all smells like backroom dealing. It would be nice if we could have a rational discussion about this at a board meeting, but of course you only get 60 seconds, so talk fast! I urge you all to reach out to any and all Board members. They need to hear from you. This is a public institution where the Board is supposed to deliberate IN PUBLIC about its decisions. They serve you, the citizens of Palo Alto. You are not a problem to be managed (or silenced)(or suppressed with a 60 second "cookie"). The facts are that we DO have the resources to meet the needs of all students. In fact if we tell the Board this is what we want, they will comply, eventually. This institution is OURS, not theirs. They will need to be reminded of what we want on a regular basis. Write early, write often. Board@pausd.org

I have several recent posters to thank.

‘Down the yellow brick road’: While it is true that many colleges will recalculate the GPAs, the change to exclude all external classes from the PAUSD transcript GPA is appalling. As a California public school system, there is no reason not to include grades from classes that are accepted by the UCs & CSUs. Further, many students rely on Naviance scattergrams to gauge their chances of acceptance to a given college. Without including grades from any external classes our students are taking, Naviance data will very quickly become useless. In summary, PAUSD has made a capricious change to an established, 10+ year rule, most likely to get back at the students that will follow the outcome allowed by the Math Placement lawsuit, without appreciating the consequences it has to the overall community.

‘Anony Mouse’: Thank you very much for your comments. I couldn’t agree more with you! It is a sad state of affairs. The school board appears to be completely indifferent, and our superintendent seems content with feeding the community with misinformation. Not a single member of the school board has had the guts to express an opinion on this topic. The same can be said for PTA and PiE, who should take an official stand. For the readers of this thread that care, I just encourage you to remember this for the next school board election or the next request for donations. I support ‘Anony Mouse’s opinion to also write to the board. While I have a sick feeling in my stomach that many (maybe all) current members are completely indifferent, maybe a persistent message will eventually ring true. Express your views in this thread as well!

‘Alum2548’: Wow! You keep coming up with very useful information. I will try to follow up with the Career Ladders Project, which was founded by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors, to see if they are aware of the official guidelines regarding non-CCAP dual-enrollment (singleton) classes.

@down the yellow brick road

The trend goes all the way back to 1994, where applicants to Berkeley from PAUSD had a great chance at getting into Berkeley:

In 1994:

Gunn
White: 24/51 - 47%
Asian: 18/37 - 48%

Paly
White: 23/40 - 58%
Asian 13/20 - 65%

@ john_alderman
Here are some more tidbits including how our neighbors are doing.

Looks like PAUSD students are doing significantly worse than our close neighbors, as far as UC Berkeley and UCLA admissions go.  The outcomes of white students is horrific.  Granted that Berkeley and UCLA are hard to get into, but man, oh man, 0.0000% in the white demographics for Berkeley/Gunn and UCLA/Paly? Granted the underserved minorities are underserved, and that it may be systemically oppressive by today's standard to expect white students to have higher qualifications/rights to be accepted anywhere vs POC, but 0/57 and 0/89? Mammma Mia! Versus our peer districts. PAUSD Asians are a roughly similar or a touch lower than our neighbors.

I wonder if this is because PAUSD’s‘s top students are about one year behind their peers in math.  Also because of how they grade so harshly in competitive stem classes - they brag that C students in BC calculus get 5’s on the AP. Now that the SAT and ACT are banned, GPAs count more than ever before.

And this is before canceling multivariable calculus and banning community college classes from the PAUSD transcript, depriving the students of advanced credits that are worth 5 GPA points. This is new, but will likely have an impact on Berkeley/UCLA admissions in the future.


Berkeley

Los Altos High School   
Whites   Asian  Latinx
9/70  19/119   6/31
13%  16%  20%

Mountain View High School
Whites Asian Latinx
9/61   12/100  0/11
15%  12%  0%

Paly
Whites   Asian  Latinx
7/74    21/139  0/23
9% 15% 0%

Gunn
Whites   Asian  Latinx
0/57     27/173    4/17
0% 16% 24%

================

UCLA

Los Altos High School   
Whites   Asian  Latinx
3/80  20/125  0/26
4%  16%  0%

Mountain View High School
Whites Asian Latinx
8/80   13/110 0/16
10%  12%  0% 

Paly
Whites   Asian  Latinx
0/89   18/146   0/27
0%   9%  0%

Gunn
Whites   Asian  Latinx
3/69  21/183  0/18
4%  11% 0%

Every year DeAnza and Foothill transfer hundreds of students to UCs, hundreds just to Berkeley and UCLA. Davis is in the guaranteed transfer program. I really wish our district would develop a better relationship with the community colleges to allow much better opportunity, independence, and individualization of students' educational paths. Aligning students starting in high school would better prepare them and make it more likely they will succeed.

Our district education is really good for the way some students learn, but really bad for others. It's not hard to fix.

I will say that allowing our own high schooler to independent school for HS really opened our eyes. Going to school locally would have had extreme opportunity costs, and almost certainly emotional ones, too (for that child, not for everyone.) Part of the problem was undiagnosed dyslexia--getting out of the traditional gauntlet allowed that child to take time when needed to compensate. It wasn't always enough, but it allowed for success and time to pursue academic and other passions where regular school would not. We wish that could have been possible here.

I really wish parents could convince the district to open a lab school, or a D Tech, or just carry the Ohlone experience through high school. Not everyone needs the same kind of education. Not everyone has the same strengths or interests. Trying to fit all students in the same mold, and leaving them little time to be individuals, makes more of them less desirable to colleges.

Going independent allowed our kid to do so much more--while leading a much more balanced life. Absent that independence and autonomy, it's likely the same kid would have had trouble just getting into college at all. It would literally have harmed future opportunity. Our district has existing policies that allow this kind of independent education even today, it's just a matter of caring enough about the students to put them above a controlling administrative culture

@Down the yellow brick road - While far from proof, this seems to be circumstantial evidence that the UC system is violating the State Constitution, as amended by Prop 209 in 1996:

SEC. 31. (a) The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.

It seems we need a brave plaintiff to come forward (they no doubt would be reviled throughout California), and sue the UC system. I have no doubt some very ugly data would come out, as with Harvard in the case at the current supreme court.

Perhaps some California Public Records Act requests could start to expose what is going on without a lawsuit, but I kind of doubt there would be compliance without the power of a court behind the request.

Thank you, ‘john_alderman’ for your comments. For those interested in this, you can find UC Berkeley (and other colleges) admissions demographics by searching for their Common Data Set (CDS) file. I think the topic of UC admission is likely worthy of its own thread here on Palo Alto Online, so I would prefer it if we can keep this discussion centered on how PAUSD actions are making it more difficult for our students to get into college.

The main topic is of course, the uncalled-for cancellation of multivariable calculus. I maintain that the superintendent gave a misleading explanation. From my follow-up with the Career Ladders Project organization, which focuses on the 116 community colleges in California and their high school partnerships, a high school does not need to claim apportionment for the college course, if the high school students in the course meet the minimum instructional minutes (typically 240 minutes) from other classes. I suspect that this is the approach all our neighborhood schools are taking.

I agree with ‘Down the yellow brick road’, that canceling multivariable calculus and banning community college classes from the PAUSD transcript has a negative impact. (S)he also comments on the harsh grading in competitive stem classes, something I have also seen discussed on various other local high school discussion forums (WhatsApp/WeChat). It is noteworthy that the 2022/23 school profiles claim that 58% and 53% of our students get the maximum score of 5 on AP tests at Gunn and Paly, respectively. They don’t list the number of 4’s, but 93% and 94% score 3 or higher. Yet as ‘Down the yellow brick road’ writes, the schools seem to take some special pride in keeping grades lower than what our students obtain in standardized tests. Is there any hard data about this?

With the huge number of college applicants today, I don’t believe that our students get a pass if they have a lower GPA, just because they are PAUSD graduates.

@Common Since and others. Quote from avive, “We live in a city that is full of very qualified people that would be more than happy to work with the district to find good solutions to almost any educational challenge. Yet, it appears that the district’s default approach is to ignore them.” Really? Is this so? We actually live in a city of software engineers who dictate production oversees. You tell me or show me a “qualified” person living in PA under the oppressive cost of housing that has the tenure on on a teachers sale ty to teach such a high caliber class?! Please. Those residents who may be qualified are working for twice or three times the salary at Google or another tech high company so they sacrifice their passion for thier zip code. We will continue to lose thru sadly death or retirement or shear lack of housing great teachers, incredible learner and thus leaders. All discussions need highlight the denominator : housing , housing , housing. Unless we confront, realize and bring to actual brick and mortar reality our children will endure subs, tired teacher from commuting from Santa Cruz. So when speaking of a teacher who taught at HS for decades... he or she was able to purchase homes in the last Century and still pursue thier career choice or passion . Now it’s a do or die reality. Unless one has hit a lottery, inherited PA property or rented the same address since 1996 not sure PA will be able replace, replicate,?substitute or even higher any one near the Caliber written, posted above. Check. There are not plenty of teachers here, yet an over abundance of qualified to teach. Yet who? You want to teach this subject??

‘Native to the Bay’: Thank you for your comments. I certainly appreciate the challenge of hiring teachers in a high-cost-of-living region. However, I want to make two points to address your remarks and clarify my own earlier statements.

(1) Multivariable calculus is not some obscure “high caliber class.” For most students going into engineering, computer science, or another STEM field, they will either have had the class in high school or are likely to take it as a first-year class in college. That is the reason all our neighboring high schools are offering it, and it is taught broadly at Foothill and all other local colleges by multiple instructors. I am not trivializing the class, or the skills needed to teach it, but am just making the statement that it is a very important class for our STEM students (and 43% of them acknowledged this on the recent PAUSD math survey).

(2) When I referred to a “city that is full of very qualified people that would be more than happy to help,” I did not imply that parents or other residents sign up to teach (even though we likely have some math professors among us). What I meant is that we would find support for people to join a committee (like the dual-enrollment committee focused on CCAP) that would reach out to the local colleges to determine how they can support Paly & Gunn just like they do the other local high schools.

Despite the challenges that ‘Native to the Bay’ raises in her/his comments, I have personally been told from other parents that there were teachers from local colleges that expressed interest in teaching the class, so it was primarily a matter of coordination and willingness from PAUSD. Instead, they thoughtlessly canceled the class, and now students and parents have to look for sub-optimal alternatives.

‘Ardan Michael Blum’: I am sorry, but I am in total disagreement with you in regard to your statement about math and passion.

I will go out on a limb and state that out of the 43% of PAUSD high school students who expressed direct interest in taking a class beyond AP Calc BC, only a very small fraction would say that they are passionate about math. I think our students just realize that it is a must to get a fundamental education in math, whether they are passionate about it or not. They all know it is needed to ultimately become engineers, scientists, etc. In my opinion, it is our school district’s responsibility to provide this educational service.

@Ardan
It would be a shame to restrict learning more advanced math to an aristocracy that could afford to hire a private tutor for the family den.

A number of decades ago, NSF sponsored summer advanced math programs for high school students - I attended one at Santa Clara University and learned much that wasn't available in either high school or at the junior college level at the time.

With modern online classes, something like the offerings noted by Stanford may be accessible:

"Pre-Collegiate University-Level Online Math & Physics Courses
These online courses are designed for motivated and academically advanced high school students to explore their intellectual passions, develop analytic reasoning and creative thinking, and study directly with expert instructors. Courses are offered for credit throughout the summer and academic year, and give students the opportunity to take a broad offering of math and physics courses not typically offered in secondary schools."

Common Sense: you should listen to the middle and high school students who spoke about their passion for math at the board meeting.

‘CalAveLocal’: Fair point! I do know that we have many kids that love math, and it was certainly not my intention to trivialize this. I went back to look at the data from the recent math survey. 19% of our high school students selected math as their favorite subject!

I still object to ‘Ardan Michael Blum’s point that this is a subject matter that should be studied at home with private tutors. It should primarily be taught during school hours.

Some kids love math for the math. Other kids pursue math because knowing it allows them to explore some other passion in STEM. As a high schooler it was the second one for me. Either way, the math is key. Don't take away opportunities from students and then hide behind a curtain of "credentialing issues". Not cool.

Ironic that Mr. Austin, who is now coming out as a big AI proponent, wants to cancel a math class that is an essential foundation for writing AI code.

Why the community and the board continue to employee someone with a solid track record of lies, ignorance of or willful disregard for the law, as well as regularly disrespecting students, parents, and staff is baffling. Not to mention a general aura of condescension toward all stakeholders that has permeated 25 Churchill and bled down to site administrators.

I know firsthand. I did not take the "early retirement deal" because it was a rip-off that forced you to put your payout into a life insurance annuity with a specific company. A terrible investment option for the teachers in question, and one can only speculate what Mr. Austin received in return for granting exclusivity to said company. My refusal to take the offer led to a year of harassment at the hands of one of Mr. Austin's disciples, a first year principal with no real experience, at my former site. It did not matter that the principal was unqualified for the job, because he was willing to do Don's dirty work, which is the #1 criteria for site administrators in PAUSD. All to the detriment of students, parents, and staff. Keep Mr. Austin on, and it will only get worse. His track record shows as much.

Here's some interesting new news. In response to inquiries about what happened with the PAUSD Dual Enrollment math program, the Foothill Dean of STEM wrote:


Hello [...]
Thank you for your inquiry into the matter. I am cc'ing a couple of my colleagues to this email, Simon Pennington and Josh Pelletier, who are both very involved in outreach and dual enrollment programs at the college.

It was not Foothill's decision to get rid of the dual enrollment math classes at PAUSD, rather, this was a decision solely made by PAUSD and was a complete surprise to us.

I will let Simon and/or Josh help navigate any further questions you may have regarding this particular situation.

Have a good day.
Zach Cembellin, M.S.
Acting Dean of the STEM Division at Foothill College


In further communications with Foothill, they said that they have not yet begun arranging schedules yet for the Dual Enrollment program, but will begin soon.


As for teacher credentialing:
Education code (EC) sections 48800 and 76004 authorize such programs and allow college instructors to serve students participating in dual or concurrent enrollment programs WITHOUT REQUIRING AN APPROPRIATE CREDENTIAL ISSUED BY THE COMMISSION ON TEACHER CREDENTIALING for the assignment.
Web Link


Don Austin LIED to the board and public about canceling math. He lied about not being able to find an instructor. He lied about credentialing. He lied about it being a forced move: "This was not a decision, it was a rule". He lied by omission, that he intentionally ripped up a perfectly good prior arrangement.

The only reason that is left that makes sense for canceling MVC is that it is out of pure spite as a result of losing the lawsuit. Someone's feelings got hurt, and the math people are going to PAY. We'll see who's boss. [Portion removed.]

Menlo Atherton Math pathway: AP Calc A [summer program!] to AP Calc BC to Multi-Variable Calc

Los Altos High Math pathway: If you go to their course catalog you will see a district that embraces opportunities for students who want to accelerate themselves. Web Link

Example: [and there is a similar one for those wanting to get to AP Calc BC and MV Calc]

COURSE TITLE: 20034C Integrated Mathematics 1 (Honors) GRADE: 9, 10 Meets the UC/CSU entrance requirement: C- Mathematics LENGTH: Full Year
This course will provide adequate preparation for highly motivated students looking to progress along an accelerated pathway to be able to enter AP Calculus AB or Precalculus H within high school. The course will cover all Integrated Math 1 topics at a faster pace focusing on a deeper understanding.

PAUSD has a puzzling agenda and suggests a lack of appreciation (and understanding?) of advanced mathematics.

more arts and culture is much more than engineer wanks. The demise of World civilization is being calculated out. I love be nerds especially the art and music ones. Here’s a thought AI is being grandfathered in with individual rights stronger than a human, living heart beat. So wrong. Every broken person you wiz by in your Lexus, Tesla or have removed from the gutter or sidewalk has been stripped bare for more space artifice called intelligent. Let’s bring Art in the Individual front & center— the real AI needed to survive. When will the elephant in the room be named. “The machine” is getting ahead of us and seems no “engineer” is able to haunt it . Not even Musk himself. Kubrick’s “2001...” you know, AL is Ai today.

That’s why Daddy Musk has his lackeys building an interplanetary rocket ship. He’s gonna get out of here before AI takes over. He knows it’s coming. The beast can’t be tamed.

It appears PAUSD used to pay Canada ~10K annually to have an instructor come teach multi / linear algebra. You can find it buried in the purchase order reports from old board meetings. Good chance there was a similar agreement with Foothill. Contract education where PAUSD directly pays Foothill to come teach means they can’t claim state apportionment for the course. And state apportionment would have been the main reason to require a certificated employee as per the FAQ linked by @Fact Check. Something still isn’t adding up. Maybe enrollment decline is causing money to dry up and someone decided something had to give.

@alum2548: Enrollment decline shouldn’t reduce funding. Funding is fixed in Palo Alto. It doesn’t change based on number of students.

This is why it’s so odd that PAUSD is trying to increase enrollment by adding the children of City of Palo Alto employees. This won’t help funding at all. It can only increase costs (particularly if some of those kids have special needs).

Perhaps if the district is so concerned with enrollment decline, it should stop pushing advanced kids out of the district.

@alum2548: Enrollment decline shouldn’t reduce funding. Funding is fixed in Palo Alto. It doesn’t change based on number of students.

This is why it’s so odd that PAUSD is trying to increase enrollment by adding the children of City of Palo Alto employees. This won’t help funding at all. It can only increase costs (particularly if some of those kids have special needs).

Perhaps if the district is so concerned with enrollment decline, it should stop pushing advanced kids out of the district.

Thank you so much to the many recent posters on this thread. I really appreciate the engagement.

Throughout my own postings, I have done my best to keep a reasonable tone. However, after reading the latest post by ‘Down the yellow brick road’, I have a difficult time containing my anger. I am curious what was censored at the bottom of his post, but I simply cannot believe the email exchange (s)he posted with the Dean from Foothill. I have to agree, I am fully aligned with the view about Don Austin being a liar. The city of Palo Alto, our students, and the employees of PAUSD deserve much better than having this person be responsible for our schools and indirectly for our children.

PAUSD does get some state monies based on enrollment--not all from local property taxes. This is defined by the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). See this for more info: Web Link

Some other financial costs to consider:
1. Our district costs are enormous for out of district (sometimes out of state) placements for students whose needs are not being met within district. It would be interesting to know how many of those there are and what the costs are. And how do we compare with other districts? Where does one find that information?
2. Budgets/costs due to lawsuits against the district are hard to track since many go to mediation. How does one find settlements (whether mediated or not? They should be available to the public.

@Ferdiand
- 1. Nonpublic schools (NPS) are State regulated and follow County Agreements from the County's SELPA Handbook. The 7 Schools PAUSD has Agreements with are disclosed at Web Link If link does not work: Type in PAUSD Public Records Act Request. Scroll down and click on Disclosed Archives Requests. Click on 2022/2023. Go to Request 36187

-2. NPS schools (above) are a budget item, so you can check each year's PAUSD budget. The number of students in these schools has fallen with new district programs. You can't know how many kids will be sick and disabled to the point they can't be served in house, but there will always be some kids you cannot serve.

"Lawsuits" is not the correct term to describe students needing to attend NPS schools, since they can be sent in an IEP document. If there is a dispute (if district doesn't want to send a child to an NPS but the parent does, or if the district wantsbelieves they can't serve the student and wants to send them to an NPS but the parent wants to keep them in public school) they could go to mediation, but that step is expensive, requiring both sides have lawyers to create an agreement or document that is far cheaper to draft in their offices. But good lawyers resolve this before going to mediation, if they can.

"Settlements" are only needed if all the arrangements cannot be written in an IEP. Some kids on IEPs have Settlements explaining what the district can do, some don't. Not all special needs schools are NPS schools, then Settlements are required, even if everyone agrees it is a good place for a kid. The legal system is messy and not designed for efficiancy or kindness.

Going to court - this happens seldom. The math case is not special education related, it was about lack of transparent consistant standard and questionable testing and grading practices. That truly was a "lawsuit". A question is who advised PAUSD to fight such a weak case, and why.

Thanks for the detailed and much needed explanation "Little Notice." I'll dive into some of that process. I didn't mean to imply that NPS placements lead to lawsuits, rather, I was making a more general observation about costs our district bears (especially if they claim they cannot afford to support certain programs). I would imagine mediation comes largely from Title IX cases. I thought mediation was with one mediator not two separate attorneys? Anyway, agree with you that many of these processes are complex and not always focused on kindness for the students involved.

Such a sad spectacle as the concerned citizens and students were shuffled along in 60 second intervals at tonight's board meeting. A travesty of democracy. Sup. Austin has done a masterful job of taking the heat and shielding the Board from any blowback. They all know that they will sit and listen to the (short) comments and then move on to something else. Keep in mind that everyone in that room tonight serves us, the people of PAUSD. They silenced any of you who talk slowly, English is not your native language, or are simply nervous. The community needs to hear our voices. Sending an email isn't enough. That's private communication that goes into the void. When you speak at a public government meeting, you are also communicating important information to this community. The 60 second rule is unjust, undemocratic and embarrassing. It's time for you all to reach out to the board. This must stop.

Despite the 60-second sound bites, it was nevertheless an impressive and consistent message by the 20+ speakers that included not only current students and parents but also recent alumni and Stanford faculty, all speaking in favor of reinstating the multivariable calculus course at Paly & Gunn.

I missed the meeting. Anony Mouse, complete agreement: "The 60 second rule is unjust, undemocratic and embarrassing. It's time for you all to reach out to the board. This must stop."
It is so painful to watch people who have thoughtfully crafted their opinions only to have them silenced after a minute. Somewhere I was reading in old minutes about the concern over reducing the speaking time from 5 to 3 minutes!

What appears to be happening is that PAUSD has redefined "dual enrollment" as only applying to CCAP classes, that are mostly vocational, and excluding non-CCAP classes such as MVC, as alum2548 found. Then from this narrow definition, they go to a CDE page Web Link as saying it requires instructors to have BOTH CC AND CTC credentials. They ignore the provisions in Web Link as only "guidance", and choose to reject the carve-out that college instructors do NOT need CTC credentials. Basically, they are tying their own hands and saying that they have no choice.

That CDE page seems to be only about apportionment and instructional minutes, but there is nothing about required certifications outside of the issues of apportionment and instructional minutes.

The whole thing stinks of bad-faith ways of trying to find creative ways to make MVC not work.

@Ferdinand - no, there is a mediator chosen and paid by the district and each side must have a lawyer. It is at least $10,000 a day for a family. It is always held at district offices and district employees are paid, and have the attorneys present who designed the problem in the first place. Charitably put, dustricts have often not read their own records, ignore written documentation of kid’s issues, or try to deny or cancel agreements they made. In mediation, parents pull out the emails showing the district is uhm, confused and struggling to keep its story straight, and show it to the mediator.

Residential schools are something everyone tries to avoid. Often kids have regressed, are repeating goals already achieved, or in severe mental health crises endangering their lives and those of their teachers and students. The District put in new programs and supports to try to help more students. This is a noble effort and has kept some kids in school, but they can’t help every child. If a student needs a 1:1 aide orva 1:1 teacher, it is cheaper to send them to an NPS or a private school specialized in addressing the disability. The legal process is disjointed. Requiring families of sick kids in crisis to pay lawyers is unfair and unkind, but they have to work with the legal system as it is.

This new “PAUSD benchmark” likely deserves its own thread, but for simplicity, I am keeping it part of this one.

During this Tuesday's school board meeting, Superintendent Don Austin stated that there are schools in California with zero involvement with community colleges, and newly promoted Assistant Superintendent of Agility and Innovation, Jeong Cheu, added in communication to students that most schools in California do not have a Multivariable dual enrollment course or good relations with their local community colleges.

Clearly, our district leadership is establishing a new benchmark to compare our schools with. According to statewide CASSPP testing, a majority of 67% and 53% of students in California did not meet standard requirements in math and English language, respectively. Since when is PAUSD comparing itself to “most schools”? Have they not heard of “peer groups”? Doctorate degrees were clearly lost on both Don and Jeong.

I keep seeing the stat of 43% of students are interested in MVC. Given that you need pre-requisites to take MVC, how much of the student body is on track to meet the pre-requisites? I went to the PAUSD website and there were 14 different math classes listed for high school. In order to get to MVC, you need to take multiple math classes at the same time, or start 9th grade in Algebra 2/Trig. (9th grade typically starts with Algebra 1, Geometry, or Geometry H). Are 43% of the students doing this?

‘staying home’: I think there are people on this thread that can better answer your question. However, for years PAUSD actively held students back in middle school and required that they must take a Geometry class from a PAUSD high school. In the recent lawsuit, this was judged to be illegal, and one should expect that the number of students that will start high school with Algebra 2/Trig will increase significantly in the coming years. People familiar with the lawsuit can quote statistics on this. I would expect that it will be similar to our neighboring cities (likely in the 40% range) as they never had the PAUSD restrictions.

I'm completely baffled by this "multivariable calculus" as a course. Perhaps I'm too old but when I took regular calculus in high school 40 years ago, "mutlivariable calculus" was part of the curriculum. I'm surprised a separate class is needed.

Maybe I'm missing something. If we're talking about "partial differential equations", I didn't take that until I was a junior in engineering school. And I think there are probably better math subjects to cover before that, such as more statistics and linear algebra, both of which have been far more useful now a days than calculus, IMO

‘Steve’ The class is often referred to as Calc. III. You can do a quick Google search to review a typical curriculum. It is a one-semester class, and high school students typically follow it with a Linear Algebra course in the second (spring) semester.

The current BC calculus curriculum does not cover much, if any, multivariable calculus. It is meant to cover the content typically found in Calc 1 and Calc 2 at college.

Multivariable calculus (aka Calc 3 at many colleges) typically includes topics like multivariable functions, partial derivatives, Lagrange multipliers, double/triple integrals, parametric curves, (conservative) vector fields, gradient/divergence/curl.

Disparate and Unequal Impact on Asian Students:
Based on 9th grade enrollment data disclosed by PAUSD, roughly 85% of the students taking Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra are Asian. There are currently 90-100 students affected by the elimination of these two math classes for the upcoming fall. None of the other 20 dual-enrollment courses have been affected: only the math ones.

If 85 out of 100 kids impacted by the removal of advanced math are Asian, it seems pretty obvious that Asian kids will bear an unequal impact. They are being told to spend their limited and valuable time after school to take math. This will adversely impact their ability to rest, to play sports, to socialize and to do homework for other classes.

Kicking one group of kids off campus is a potential violation of their civil rights.

Failure of Leadership:
Why were these classes canceled so abruptly? Why is PAUSD not diligently working to address the issues? Students are scrambling to find solutions on their own with little guidance. Neighboring districts are not having any supposed “credentials” problem. Are these problems truly real if state regulations leave wide latitude for interpretation or if Mountain View, Fremont, San Jose, etc. have all found solutions? What is really going on?

Discrimination Complaint with Office of Civil Rights:
Quoting the Office of Civil Rights: “Educational institutions have a responsibility to protect every student's right to learn in a safe environment free from unlawful discrimination and to prevent unjust deprivations of that right.”

PAUSD should be reported to the Office of Civil Rights. OCR should investigate why unlike neighboring districts, PAUSD is depriving the rights of mostly Asian students to receive math education on campus.

Read the OCR website and decide if you should file a complaint on behalf of your child:

Web Link

You don't like it, leave the district. We knew of students who did all this extra math or more APs than they could handle and where did they gain admission? Same basic colleges as everyone else. Those poor students who got overworked for nothing. Don't sacrifice the GPA while trying to prove rigor, it doesn't work, they only allot 7 minutes per application. They only need Calculus AB lane. The only students who need 7-10 APs are competing for Ivy League admissions. How many people make it into the Ivies from Paly? Most Tiger Parents don't realize that many are accepted as athletes. Newsflash: There are plenty of Ivy Leaguers who are unhappy yet their parents are beaming with pride. But it's difficult to convince a culture that their students don't really belong at an Ivy League.

You are right, the impact on college applications is questionable at best. The point of having these courses is to allow students to continue studying math after completing BC calculus prior to their senior year. The math is useful for a variety of subjects and interests. Nearly a decade of PAUSD students have enjoyed this opportunity which is now unavailable. People are in fact leaving the district or enrolling in private school because of poor decisions being made at the site and district level. It’s a shame, really. There’s so much potential, given the resources at this district’s fingertips.

‘It.is.what.it.is’: You make some interesting statements, but they seem somewhat anecdotal without any factual data supporting them. My biggest beef with your post is that it seems somewhat off-topic. This thread has been about PAUSD canceling a popular math class that is highly desired by a lot of students, and it is not about college enrollment or Tiger Parents.

Remember, math is a favorite subject of 19% of our high school students. Ironically the solution you suggest, “to leave the district” is one that many families are opting for. You must not have followed last Tuesday’s board meeting, but falling enrollment was an agenda topic, with families leaving being discussed as a contributing factor. They already brought up school closures. Make sure you know what you are asking for.

@ "It is what it is"

Racist much? Please don't hold back your true feelings towards Asians.

You say "you don't like it, leave the district" implying Asians should move out of Palo Alto district. Telling Asians to "go back where you came from" has been around for decades since Asians immigrated to America. Nothing new here.

You say "Most Tiger Parents don't realize that many are accepted as athletes."
Uhm are you stating all the kids who are upset about Multivariable calculus being cancelled at Paly and Gunn are Asians? Seems PAUSD also believes the same, so it proves this is a racist move to cancel multivariable calculus to target Asian students at PAUSD. Gotcha.

You imply with your statement that these students who didn't get into Ivy leagues are because they were not athletes. Don't hold back your stereotypes. Clearly Asian Americans do not know how much the Ivies allocate spots for athletes.

Clearly Asian American parents are all "tiger parents" as you state.
Clearly Asian American parents want their kids going to "Ivies" as you put it
Clearly Asian American parents overwork and push their kids to up the GPA

Now we know what type of thinking is behind cancelling Multivariable Calculus as well as getting rid of counting GPA for taking outside coursework.

DOn't hold back racist ideas.

Clearly you've laid out all the stereotypes of Asian American parents (which are quite false) and then to top it off, you believe that high level math is solely primarily taken by the Asian students. Which is probably the one singular fact you might have gotten correct.
But telling Asians to leave the district - well, we know how much you like Asians right there.

I think this actually is an OCR filing in the making. Racism by the Board. Racism against Asian students by Don Austin Superintendent.

Really disappointed to see 1960s-era-South style comments here telling an ethnic group "You don't like it, leave the district". Seriously?

There is an easy solution for those willing to make the effort - FOOTHILL COLLEGE! The class they need is offered as Math 1C available both in-person and online.

‘Johnboy’: If you bothered reading and understanding the thread your will see that no one is arguing that the class is not available from multiple places online or in-person, e.g. at Foothill. In fact, I indirectly made that point in the initial statement.

However, how and when are the high school students supposed to get to Foothill, and why and when should they have to take it online? Sure, everyone loved online classes during Covid!

These are high school kids that have studied together in prior years and deserve to take a follow-up class with their friends. Also, they should not have to take it outside of school hours. Most students are involved in enriching extracurricular activities after school. Your proposed solution makes no sense.

@Johnboy that is exactly the class that was being offered at the high schools, through a dual enrollment partnership with Foothill College!

The main problem is that community college courses often fill up and high schoolers have relatively low priority to get in. Also the courses sometimes occur during the regular school day when the students have other classes to attend.

That's why having these courses offered through PAUSD is so valuable. Enrollment is easier, timing works with the high school schedule, and students can take the course alongside their peers.

Based on the information presented in the comments, MVC (and Linear Algebra) are beyond AB and BC Calc, both of which are AP level math classes. And AP classes are already college level, correct? Is PAUSD offering "beyond AP" level courses for any other subject?

It seems the district has all the intentions to support MVC as a course, but is challenged to staff it. So rather than attack the district as failing our students, we should focus on the staffing issue. What is being done to attract and hire college level teachers to teach the advanced course work that is being demanded? If Foothill has a course (meaning they have qualified teachers for MVC), perhaps PAUSD could have the Foothill teachers come to Paly for the courses?

> If Foothill has a course (meaning they have qualified teachers for MVC), perhaps PAUSD could have the Foothill teachers come to Paly for the courses?

Yes, that was the original arrangement before COVID hit. A Foothill faculty member came and taught the class at Paly. Even once the class went online due to COVID, it was a Foothill faculty member that continued teaching it remotely.

The district claims they cannot continue offering the course in this manner because they cannot offer dual credit for a course taught by a community college instructor. They claim any course taught at a high school must be taught by a CTC credentialed individual. Yet when asked to produce relevant policy updates to back up this new interpretation and invalidate years of precedent, they fail to do so.

So you have no choice but to ask — behind the scenes, does everyone actually want to support multivariable calculus as a course?

@Editor

After over 105 comments, when is the Weekly going to investigate the timing of this cancellation with regard to the math lawsuit, the changing narrative and excuses coming from Dr. Austin and the increasingly obvious coordination among board leadership and their groupies for the past few months?

The cancellation of this class appears to have been done in retaliation to the math lawsuit which was a last ditch effort, by parents who had nothing personally to gain, to get PAUSD aligned with it's neighboring peer districts (not statewide, cause being a leader in CA is the reason so many move here in the first place).

Look into what else is going on behind the scenes with coordinated commenters, student board rep statements, the rash survey Austin did regarding math last month and the cherry picking of the results? Are you watching the meetings closely?

Who was the school board elected to represent? What are the true priorities of PAUSD and are they what the majority of voters wanted? Lately people who speak up for math are being called tiger parents. Is that what the district leadership really thinks? We are a district with a large immigrant population and I do not see much acknowledgement or consideration of that on the school board. Worse some of school board leadership says pretty insulting things to PAUSD families who are against holding kids back in math. Leadership seems to be off track and out of touch with who they actually serve.

I think @it.is. is just baiting everybody.

The challenge for the district is surely, how much demand is there for advanced math?

We had one of those mathophile kids who ran through the whole Paly math canon early, never seemed to spend much time on homework, did other activities, and never seemed particularly stressed, including about colleges. I’ve no doubt there are kids out there who sadly do fit the negative stereotype it.is. is waving around. But it wasn’t our experience, and furthermore it wasn’t the experience of our son’s friends in high school, most of whom were mathophile kids like he was. So the question must surely be, are there enough kids like that, who really do benefit from advanced math, to support PAUSD finding a path to offer it?

We saw enough of these kids that I think the answer is yes, and so I believe the parents asking the District for it are justified. I disagree with some school board members who allegedly said, if they actually did say it, that such kids should just go to private school; which is kind of the ultimate “laning.”

Did it ruin his life (! or heavens! college prospects!) not to take MVC in high school? Of course not; I think he just didn’t take math his senior year. To be honest, we thought earlier grades were more problematic than high school; some of the Elementary and even middle school teachers just did not understand. It’s bad to bore kids too, and “but there are lots of ways to do Division, he can just study some other ones!” --- I kid you not --- isn’t helpful.

I applaud Board Member Segal for recognizing the overall problem, though I’ve yet to be convinced “differentiation” can work effectively in Math --- it’s a big range of aptitude and passion to cover (yes, that’s lower grade levels not MVC). But if PAUSD can’t address advanced math one way or another, it’s a loss.

This article has received the most comments of any other crisis occurring: Housing, crime, traffic. Instead of developing our young to confront real world problems a missing calculus course gets most of the comment hits. As if the city is confronting it’s own mathematical deficit ... lack of human ingenuity. Our HS grads fly away to top schools yet can never return on a BA/BS degree at stating salaries of 40K a year. Mr. Filseth, I disagree with every single opinion you post. It’s small and stale mined and very so elite . Like returning to snatcher century, in another country with a very different type of leadership. There is no there there except where it is u stare! So ONE sided.

‘Native to the BAY’: I would agree with you that a canceled math class should not be a leading issue, but it is the underlying story that is actually of greater significance. Why was the class canceled? There are enough indications that we are being grossly misled by the superintendent and that we have a puppet school board that is happily following along. There are no real credentialing reasons that would prevent Foothill or any other local community college from teaching the class. After all, it is done at all the other local high schools. The local colleges are interested and we have a bunch of kids that already signed up for the class. Instead, PAUSD is desperately searching for a loophole in some regulations just to be able to say that it should be canceled. Why are they trying to be “holier-than-thou”? They are doing it out of pitifulness and spite. Eventually, it will come out that this is all improper, just like it did in the recent lawsuit about math placement. In summary, it is really not about a math class but about a city with a terrible school district administrator and no oversight.

Why is PAUSD obstructing its math students?

Palo Alto voters, unfortunately disproportionately unrepresentative of students, had been fed with conspiracy theories and we have board members that were elected because they amplified biases and fears. The implementation of their priorities by Don Austin is getting out of control. Explicitly breaking laws, bullying of families and staff, and misrepresenting and cherry picking evidence and data.

The abrupt removal of advanced math courses is just the next escalation in PAUSD's war against its advanced math students. Anyone digging into the facts can see through what is happening.

As with anything that is driven by biases and fears and lies, and is blind to evidence and data, no one wins. Except perhaps some with political aspirations that drive this travesty. Data clearly shows that all our student groups are worse off. And the impact is disproportionate -- when access is limited or removed and roadblocks are places then opportunity gaps increase.

They say it is about "equity." But this is pretend equity. At PAUSD, the groups that were behind, economically disadvantaged, are further behind that they ever were, and further behind similar neighboring districts. They claimed the delaning of middle school math was about "serving the middle band." But we have more students than ever before, the majority, that are outside the middle band and are grossly unprepared or are misplaced down. Demographically, the middle band is predominanty affluent and white and over represented by voters. Those outside tend to be non-white with foreign-born parents. But even the middle band is worse off.

Our only way out is through the next election. There is hope. Last election there was one fantastic candidate, Shana Segal, that run on a platform of transparency and serving all students. She won with overwhelming majority. We need 2 more fantastic candidates for 2024. Endorsement by current board is a warning signal.

@Observer — “when will the Weekly investigate?” You raise a good point, although I’m afraid their hands are tied. Local newspaper, local politics… they probably need to “play nice.”

Superintendent Don Austin is known — yet many won’t say it like it is — to be a bully and a liar. He’s sometimes verbally abusive.

I strongly suspect that Weekly is scared that, if they report on things the “wrong” way, Don Austin will refuse to talk to them — and forbid both district employee and the board from talking to the Weekly (perhaps illegal, but *shrug*). He’ll ice them out, and that would cut them off from a lot of reporting. So the local news has to play nice. It’s sad, but I get it.

Thank you Eric for your comments. I don't know if you're aware of the all details of the lawsuit PAUSD lost. [It's now a fact established by a judge that PAUSD's math placement practices aren't just really misguided, but actually illegal.]

The more you dig in to the weeds, the more you'll see how out of line the School Board is with our community. The "go somewhere else" thinking is just one of many patterns of disservice that more and more parents are experiencing.

------

Our daughter was in 6th grade, loving math and science. Her class was still drawing rectangles to show why 13 x 14 works out the way it does. Super valuable, but she'd mastered that content (in every which way and representation) about 5 years earlier.

Our family asked for meeting to discuss. We went in doe-eyed thinking we could have an easy, friendly conversation about options. Within 1 minute, I kid you not, 1 minute, we were advised to go to a private school. We were flabbergasted. Afterwards, we talked for a half hour about what we might have accidentally said to antagonize.


Our daughter has hated every second of her math experience with PAUSD. She still loves math and biology, thank heavens. Just hates every minute of the time waste that is math in PAUSD.

@staying home

Yes, MVC (and linear algebra) are beyond BC Calculus. Here are some facts:

-- You ask, why math and not other subjects?

Facts:
There is demand for the course that is even expected to increase: 90+ PAUSD students finish BC Calculus before their senior year and are ready for more advanced courses. Moreover, a recent survey to our HS students (with 50%+ response rate) reports that 45% (!!) said they would be interested in taking beyond-AP-Calculus math courses if they could.

Any advanced course with such demand should be offered. If you look at "favourite subject" in the survey then a whopping 47% selected STEM and only 21% selected social studies and english. So it is not surprising there is such demand for courses that are so foundational for STEM.

-- You say PAUSD wants to offer but "struggles with staffing".

Facts:
Offering the course **does not cost PAUSD anything** (!!) PAUSD is not required to provide a teacher (they can *choose* to, if the CC agrees, they can). The existing arrangement (and at neighboring district) is that Foothill sends their own teacher at no cost to PAUSD.

Again, this only makes sense for Foothill to do so for courses with sufficient enrollment. This year, there was so much interest that there was a lottery (for the first time!). The solution is to offer sections at both high schools instead of one section for both. It is important to make this arrangement early so Foothill can staff it, but instead PAUSD unilaterally severed the current arrangement (an unexpected surprise to Foothill).

Commenting on some comments:
1. Palo Alto Weekly would add much value if they investigated the process and intentions behind PAUSD cancelling any class with sufficient enrollment [in this case MVC/calc 3, which is often seen as easier than the foundation-heavy APcalc classes). It does relate to the district's dictate of "equal outcomes" for all but at what cost?

2.Effective Communication continues to decline: The prevailing BOE philosophy appears to include a “we know best” for everyone without encouraging discourse, providing background, and supporting it with good data. As in many US institutions, some members of our board/DO may not feel welcome to express viewpoints contrary to those in control. The result is continued divisiveness within our schools and our community, and possibly within the board? Time for a community survey on our PAUSD effectiveness written by a neutral party.

3. We are a diverse community! Some students—not mine—are very high achievers and will not have a 4th year math option w/o us offering a course for their advancement. Engineering is one of many meaningful pathways for addressing future problems on a world scale, and those programs expect 4 years of high level math. AP Stats--which is beneficial for some engineering studies such as civil--is secondary for other BS Engineering degrees.

@ferdinand:

#1. Yes! This would be fantastic. It would involve seeking out voices besides the official Board and admins. They may need to help move this along by agreeing to anonymity because…

#2 I can confirm there is 0% chance that anyone on the inside will be willing to speak on the record. Above teacher level, there is 100% thought and message discipline. Desks suddenly become empty when anyone dares think or speak outside the message. They. Just. Disappear. The board is beholden to this administration. They love that they don’t have to make the hard calls. They leave that to Don, he takes a bit of heat and everyone moves on. Their one concession is sitting through all of us give our rapid fire 55 second speeches at board meetings. It’s a small price to pay. Our students and community suffer, though, when democracy is circumvented

#3 The sad thing is, we have the resources to do all of the things to meet all the needs. If they were willing to listen to the community. Don cannot show weakness by changing his mind. The community and our students are impoverished by this blinkered, myopic and cynical mindset. They all work for us. Keep pushing.

@common sense . Thanks 4 the shout out. We must: de un re engineer. AI is overtaking quickly, RIGHT now. And since COVID, those who have skills like laying carpet, custodial or customer service, certified LVN’s r usurped by a bot/AI/data driven algorithm . Hourly wage checks go uncashed because BofA or a Wells Fargo’s human teller is being dictated 2 by a higher level robot (APP based banking scenario). From Rap music 2 common Banking, the small is becoming invisible 4 BIG CASH holders at the helm. As in the “I do what the bot tells me 2 do” reality. Promise me a PA HS calculus class will calculate into the equation the smaller local earnings of an American workforce, & I am all in. Where calculus falls in w real world reality of life, learning, leading... other than a parent finding a college pot of four year gold...it’s all dust & dreams. We have a severe social prob 2 confront, front center. Rearing another engineer will not solve the crisis. Human prevention & keen intervention will. I am 1/2 ready to dive into a unhoused person’s crumbling, broken, soaked possessions of street trash. Why? What do they hold which I do not ... it’s not condescending or flippant — a very deep sink into the psyche of an American emergency we cannot grasp. Q: what is the difference of possessing 5 cars w a humongous house over a human pushing five grocery/strollers/wagons full of trash & soiled blankets? Is a calculus course solving this unequal yet parallel, equation? Boycott BofA & Wells Fargo. These 2 Cali based banks have sunk us into cash deprived despair. these banks refuse 2 cash an hourly work check, unless the name exactly matches the account holders, exactly. As J-Z says: “It’s a hard luck life.” Even when the life of labor serves way up high the chain. The social diffusion is real. 2 many one way warriors in the game. Our current reminds me of the US revolutionary war strategy. Forward; March! w little 2 to zero holdouts 2 survive the onslaught from both sides.

[Post removed; successive comments by same poster are not permitted.]

‘Native to the BAY’: Wow, that was a mouthful, and it took me a while to decipher!

As the originator of this thread, I have felt obligated to keep the discussion somewhat on point. Therefore, I will only address one of your statements: “Promise me a PA HS calculus class will calculate into the equation the smaller local earnings of an American workforce, & I am all in.”

Our family has stuck through the PAUSD system, through the good and the bad, in large part due to the great kids we have in our schools. Our children have made wonderful friends. Based upon the solid foundation kids receive in Palo Alto, many will go on to great careers, and I am certain some will fight against the social injustices you speak about. Hence, I encourage you to also stick with me, focus, and help me highlight the specific educational injustices our current school district administration is applying to our kids. We need a fresh mindset at PAUSD.

'Eric Filseth’ I am sorry you are getting a few harsh comments on the thread. I suspect it is off-topic, as what you wrote about your son’s experience is very relatable, and I also agree with your takeaway that PAUSD should do better. Based on your prior city council experience and connections, maybe you can help shake the tree a bit.

PAUSD has recently provided an FAQ about multivariable calculus and the cancellation:
Web Link

@alum2548
Thanks for the link! The FAQ seems to contain significant errors, though.

In the FAQ timeline, it claims "The California Department of Education (CDE) updated the dual enrollment parameters in the 2020-21 school year, categorizing these courses as concurrent enrollment.", but the provided link is a 2021-2022 school year q&a about state funding (apportionment) rather than course categorization info.

Apparently PAUSD made significant changes to how it treats/categorizes the MVC and Linear Algebra classes from 2020 onward, and that's the crux of the current controversy. Surely PAUSD could make an effort to proofread its FAQ to make sure key links supposedly addressing the issue actually lead to the right place.

PAUSD FAQ confuses CHOICES with REQUIREMENTS.

PAUSD is not REQUIRED to offer MVC as dual enrollment. PAUSD CHOSE not to. Abruptly and unexpectedly.

PAUSD also CHOSE to blatanly lie about it, and pretend they were REQUIRED to cancel the course. We can only speculate why. It seems that the actual motives for cancelation can get them into big trouble. So they CHOSE to lie.

As @Mondoman shared. No, the California Department of Education (CDE) DID NOT decide to categorize these courses as concurrent enrollment. PAUSD CHOSE to re-categorize these courses that way. They are NOT REQUIRED to do that. They pretend there is a regulation that does not actually exist.

Other issues with FAQ:

The FAQ states correctly that only ONE section was offered (shared by both HS) in the past decade+. But the FAQ fails to say that during that time it was sufficient. This year 2022-2023, demand increased drastically. PAUSD CHOSE to do a LOTTERY for the 40 seats instead of working with Foothill college to offer a section at each high school. This was a CHOICE. MVLA (also served by Foothill) has a section at each highschool.


FAQ states: "The course was offered outside of school hours".
FACTS: In most years the course overlapped with a school period (first or last) to allow for travel time between the high schools. If a section is offered at each high school, it can be done in a regular period.

FACTS: In the last 7 years, since 2016-2017, the MVC teacher was purely a CC teacher (through Canada college then from 2019-2020 Foothill College). With no HS credentialing.

FACTS: MVC+LA were offered in-person until the pandemic started. It moved online DUE to the pandemic. But there is nothing preventing PAUSD from arranging for an in-person section at each high school. There will be ~80+ post BC calculus students next year.

PAUSD is desperately looking for ways to make it not work. They have "reasons" including that "most schools don't offer MVC," as if we wanted to be like "most schools". Most of our neighbors offer it. The CDE FAQ page they keep citing is indeed about apportionment and instructional minutes, to figure out who gets paid by the government, the community college or high school. Their interpretation of that CDE FAQ depends on cherry-picking words out of a sentence and ignoring the rest.
"Pursuant to Education Code sections 46300(a) and 47612.5(e), students are required to be under the immediate supervision and control of a certificated employee of the school district or charter school and engaged in educational activities that are required of them ---->> TO GENERATE ATTENDANCE FOR THE PURPOSE OF FUNDING <<----."
Web Link

The CTC page, which they ignore as merely "guidance," clearly states:
"Education code (EC) sections 48800 and 76004 authorize such programs and allow college instructors to serve students participating in dual or concurrent enrollment programs ---->> WITHOUT REQUIRING AN APPROPRIATE CREDENTIAL ISSUED BY THE COMMISSION ON TEACHER CREDENTIALING <<---- for the assignment."
Web Link

There is no "Wild West" of conflicting rules, which Austin keeps insisting. Only if you're illiterate.
Web Link

PAUSD's reading is in bad-faith. Little do they know that some people in the community are not stupid and illiterate.

They're using a very thin and insulting smokescreen to cover their cowardice to say boldly that they are canceling MVC as retaliation for losing the lawsuit. Other districts are more transparent about their intentions
Web Link

@Mondoman I agree. The idea that you need high school credentials to teach these courses is just plain wrong and a gross misinterpretation of Ed Code and the referenced guidelines.

Multivar and linear algebra are community college courses being taught by a community college instructor, online or on a high school campus. Foothill, not PAUSD, would claim funding for organizing and teaching the course. Dual credit just means Foothill sends PAUSD grades to put on the high school transcript. Nothing in this process requires a high school credential.

i love this topic, and based on the number of comments, I would encourage PAOnline to do a follow up. So far as I can tell, PAUSD has canceled a popular elective course, and in the process of doing so, demonstrated their poor communications skills, increasing the distrust of the district. Am I getting this right?

@ staying home, I would add to that malfeasance and retribution for losing the lawsuit. They are using a deliberate misreading of a department of education FAQ as an excuse to cancel Multivariable Calculus.

We just heard a compliance hearing for the math placement lawsuit. The judge declined to hear the MVC issue because it was out of scope of the original lawsuit.

50+ students have written a letter asking for the courses to be reinstated.

CA Dept of Education said PAUSD misinterpreted their website, so the instructor doesn't actually need a high school credential.

Foothill remains willing to offer a section of MVC to PAUSD students.

What gives, PAUSD? A solution is sitting right in front of you. C'mon, do something.

@Jeremy, I and my child would also like to write a letter asking for the courses to be reinstated. Where can we send a letter? I previously asked a questions regarding this issue on "Let's talk", but I have not received a reply yet.

‘Jeremy’ & ‘Gunn parent’: Write to everybody in PAUSD senior administration:

Don Austin, Superintendent: daustin@pausd.org
Kathie Laurence, Director, Ed. Services, Academic Initiatives: klaurence@pausd.org
Jeong Choe Director, Innovation & Agility: jchoe@pausd.org
Guillermo Lopez Assistant Superintendent, Secondary Education: glopez@pausd.org
Your school principal and other admins: Web Link
PAUSD board: board@pausd.org
Any individual board members: Web Link

Looking at this from the outside, I have a feeling I am living in a surreal world. There are absolutely no disadvantages to having PAUSD offering the class. California Dept. of Education (CDE) has on written record stated that the PAUSD interpretation of CDE regulations is incorrect. The community college is teaching the class, and there is no PAUSD cost involved for dual enrollment. There are no indications that this is an easy “A” for a student taking an outside-of-PAUSD class, which seems to be the latest hot-button issue for the district. There is literally only upside for the 50+ students, that already signed up to easily be able to take this math class at Paly/Gunn next year.

Canceling multivariable is the worst example of a power play by the administration. They cannot point to a single rational reason to cancel it. For the students impacted by this, it must be a hopeless feeling because they observe a school district that refuses to listen to them and has neither basic decency nor common sense in their decision-making.

Make your voices heard. Report back what you learn!

Many reporters are being contacted. Interviews are being given. PAUSD will be a national laughingstock.

Correspondence from the administration is willfully stupid. Kind of like:

Math person: "I have correspondence with the right person at the CDE. She says that 2+2=4 and that our understanding is correct."
PAUSD: OK, so this means that the CDE supports our interpretation that 2+2=5.


It's just a thin smoke screen to hide the fact that they are too cowardly to admit (again) that it is because of the lawsuit. Maybe someone told Austin it was a bad idea to brag about it being a result of the lawsuit. This is revenge, pure and simple.

Aside from retribution against the math people, this also serves the goal of "equity". Pretend the low performers are doing fine by eliminating D's and F's, and push down the high achievers with a glass ceiling. While vocational students get the +1 GPA point when taking CCAP dual enrollment classes, advanced math students not only do not get the +1 GPA point, they don't even get their classes. I am all for equity, but not a la Khmer Rouge.

Here is where we're headed, as long as we have this administration and board:
Web Link

Remember this at the next board election!

This is the PAUSD Board Members:
When exactly will you get fed up with backing up fake claims and lies by Superintendent Don Austin espouses regarding cancelling Multivariable Calculus Course at PAUSD?

While adjacent peer Public high schools all surrounding PAUSD offer Multivariable Calculus (Woodside High school, Menlo-Atherton high school, Sequoia high school, Mountain View high school, Los Altos high school, Carlmont high school just to name a few) PAUSD backs a lying Superintendent who makes up false claims for cancelling Multivariable calculus at PAUSD.

How many lies will you tolerate from your leadership? Apparently he can lie and never get fired. He can lie and renew his employment contract. He can lie and encourage lawsuits against PAUSD and waste tax payers money ad infinitum.

At what point do you say, integrity and character matter more in a Superintendent than always positioning himself as correct (amid evidence that shows how baseless cancelling Multivariable Calculus)?

What is the boundary and limit, because parents want to know how many lies does it take to fire a Superintendent?
Maybe it's time for a recall if the Board doesn't do their job properly.

Dear PAUSD Board Members,

When will you get fed up with backing up the fake claims and lies by Superintendent Don Austin, currently he is espousing fake claims for why he cancelled Multivariable Calculus at the District.

Adjacent peer PUBLIC high schools surrounding PAUSD offer Multivariable Calculus:
1) Woodside High School
2) Menlo-Atherton High School
3) Sequoia High School
4) Mountain View High School
5) Los Altos High School
6) Carlmont High School

How many lies will does it take before the Superintendent Don Austin is fired for his untruths. You tolerate false claims for Supt. Austin's actions and continue to renew his employment contract. Austin can lie and encourage lawsuits against PAUSD and waste tax payers money all with your stamp of approval.

At what point do you say that integrity and character matter more than always positioning oneself as correct. The evidence is mounting that shows the "reasons" for cancelling Multivariable Calculus was baseless.

What is the boundary and limit, because parents want to know how many lies does it take to fire a Superintendent? Maybe it's time for a recall if the Board doesn't do their job properly.

It's astonishing the number of misdirections and incorrect readings of Ed Code the board members and staff can hide behind. Parents and students have obtained multiple statements from CDE staff saying the offering complies with relevant sections of Ed Code. District staff have only provided a few cherry-picked excerpts from CDE FAQ and Ed Code. There is really no cohesive argument, and some of the sections shared appear entirely unrelated to the topic at hand. Staff claim they consulted with CDE to inform their decision. Why can't the professionals produce ANY documentation, while students and parents can produce plenty?

Dear 'Common Sense': Thank you for the list of staff. I will consider emailing them to share our disappointment. I hope someone in PAUSD is reading this thread so they know what hole they've dug themselves into.

PAUSD board, your constituents are unhappy. If you want to get re-elected, you should make sure your staff are acting with integrity. Otherwise people will take notice, and they will remember.

What will actually compel PAUSD to fix the problem? Evidently students presenting well thought out solutions is not enough. Maybe parents need to file another lawsuit..

@jeremy, @palo alto res: This is where we are right now. The slow deterioration of our public school institution. There have been countless stories over the last 5 years that bring us to this moment. All of them felt innocuous at the time. We all thought that students would not be affected when we found out that teacher morale is disastrously low (maybe the students won't notice?). When PACCC was demeaned by this administration we thought it was just an elementary school problem (maybe students will be ok with this other provider?). When PAUSD steamrolled teachers and enacted the elementary literacy curriculum adoption (maybe teachers don't know what they're talking about?). When they enacted their confusing, nonsensical middle school math placement system (maybe it'll reduce student stress?). When they reshuffled elementary moderate/severe special ed (it's a strategy to put special ed families on the back foot?). And now this power play about calculus (we lost a lawsuit, so this is the solution?). Taken together, this all leads to worse student experiences. Don't be fooled by the mountains of promises, charts, and propaganda. We're all sliding down this greasy pole. Who will arrest our fall? We can do better. This is a public institution and the staff and electeds work for us. The public.

@Anony Mouse - I agree it has been a long slow process. I'd argue the attack on merit and elevation of merit started 10+ years ago - killing the gifted program, everyday math, etc.. It's just that the denial of reality, that there are genetic differences in kids and you can never achieve equal outcomes, means that the actions get more desperate and indefensible. If we are lucky we are in the final stage before parents wake up and take control back instead of putting pathetic activists in charge of the schools.

@john alderman No, I don't sign on to your opinion. Genetics has nothing to do with the situation at hand. It's unaccountable leadership. It's a lack of transparency. It's contempt for stakeholders. And, students suffer. We're seeing that in the cancellation of this class. The fact is, we can do better. We can meet the needs of all students. We, of all communities in California, have the resources. It's a classic bureaucratic maneuver to control all the budgeting and all the information about budgeting, then claim that there are only resources for your preferred outcome. I urge the finance nerds on the board (even the ones who are VCs) to dig deeper in to this.

Now that it's been clearly explained, line-by-line, why the course can continue to be taught by a college professor at the high schools, you would think the school district would welcome that news with open arms.

Instead they are retreating into their shell. Claiming it's too late for Foothill to organize a section for PAUSD. Saying the matter is settled for next year. Setting up email filters to block any discussion with staff on the topic.

Open Letter Regarding the Cancellation of Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra at Palo Alto High School and Gunn High School

May 6, 2023

Summary
We are reaching out to you to advocate for students in PAUSD at Paly and Gunn who are affected by the recent cancellation of Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra (MVC/LA) classes. There is no valid reason for canceling these classes.

To minimize the harmful impact of the district’s decision on PAUSD students, we request that PAUSD:
1. Continue to offer Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra at Paly or Gunn (including for the 2023-2024 school year)
2. Return to an in-person class on site (at Paly and/or Gunn) as experienced since 2012 to 2020 (pre-pandemic) by PAUSD students, which also matches what is currently provided at neighboring Public District High Schools: Mountain View High School, Los Altos High School, Woodside High School, Sequoia High School, Menlo-Atherton High School, etc. (See map below.)

We have identified instructors who can come to our campuses and teach these courses during school hours. It is up to PAUSD to make it work.

Read more here: Web Link

100 signatures and counting...

I hope PAUSD retracts their baseless statements about credentialing and reinstates the in-person MVC & Linalg offering from before COVID. That is the right thing to do.

I hope your open letter gets some traction with the Board. Last night was quite something. The usual sad spectacle of stakeholders talking as fast as they can - you, citizens, may speak, but make it quick, we're busy. Did everyone catch the little response from the Sup? "We need to show a better example to students. Be less complainey". Translation: opposition and disagreement is "uncivil", he will decide when and how you can speak. Then the trustees all boasting at the end about how wonderful and quick the meeting was. This is top to bottom a mockery of democracy. We can do better. Keep pushing.

@alum2548
Excellent letter! I urge others here to follow the link and read the full letter.

Wow, about 400 signatures! PAUSD has yet to present a plausible reason to cancel MVC. After a thorough debunking of all given reasons, they remain unmoved.

A board member gave "gun violence" as a reason.
How can you argue against that? Gotcha there! OK, you win.

Looking at the letter, the facts, and very long list of signatures, it hard to not conclude this PAUSD decision was targeted specifically at the Asian and south Asian community. This makes me VERY uncomfortable.

Now there are new limitations on speaking at meetings and the obvious disdain shown by Don Austin and the board for so many parents, often those who are immigrants.

The whole PAUSD situation has deteriorated under his leadership and the board leaders are in lock step with him. Why is this paper not looking into this?

Folks,
The only way to right this ship is to vote for school board candidates who support excellence and achievement students of all interests--not just in sports or the arts.
It's a long time until 2024. Don't forget to get involved early, contribute, and maybe even run yourself.

Word on the street is that Foothill is going to organize a section of Math 1C at Paly in the fall (4:45pm-7pm MW).

Don't be fooled, this is a move to save face after the mess last night and the extremely inappropriate commentary by the superintendent.

If PAUSD were to actually read the open letter, they would know there are over 70 students across the high schools that are eligible to take multivariate calculus and linear algebra. This number is only going to grow in future years. How does this hasty decision fix any problems? If anything, it is worse.

Parents have repeatedly explained that there must be an in-person section at each high school. They have identified an instructor that can teach at both high schools during the bell schedule.

Isn't there any regulatory agency that oversees PAUSD and superintendent? I was told that the the removal of MVC and linear algebra was due to a loss in a lawsuit. If it is true, this issue should be investigated and overseen. I also feel like it was targeted at Asian immigrants, which is also a very uncomfortable and sensitive issue.

Don Austin, backed by board leadership, is working hard to limit the math achievement of its students, targetting Asian families in particular. PAUSD leadership is unhappy with families that don't just accept whatever they do. They give reasons that have no actual backing such as "gun violence", "equity" (Supt said "George Floyd$), and "wellness." To block students that are ready from accessing the math courses they are ready for. They lie, misrepresent, and break laws.

At the other end of the achievement spectrum, PAUSD disadvantaged students fall further and further behind. The "PAUSD Promise" goals are PRETENDED to be about that group. But there are no progress indicators for improving math achievement. A math-heavy career, that half our students want (according to a survey), is not something PAUSD leadership believes is right to our disadvantaged students. ***70% of whom*** are not meeting ***minimum grade level standards in math*** by middle school.

The need for intervention and support in the early elementary grade can not be overstated. The PAUSD Promise is being revised, but not this way. INSTEAD at the last board meeting:

-- Don Austin stated THERE IS NO NEED FOR ADDITIONAL ACADEMIC GOALS in the promise. What he wants to do instead??? RE-EDUCATE PAUSD parents so that they are happy with whatever PAUSD hands down (A response to parents and students speaking earlier about MVC cancelation).
Web Link

-- Jesse Ladomirak also **pivoted away** from promising three R's: She wants progress goals around "toxic stress."
Web Link

This is shameful!! PAUSD leadership is disconnected from the mostly non-white families at the ends of the achievement spectrum. The majority of students. PAUSD plan for disadvanrtaged students is to nudge them to vocational ed, starting in ELEMENTARY school (instead of properly teaching math). The plan for high achievers is to remove access.

Be careful when the word equity is thrown around. When the word is used without any substance or expression of the wrong to be addressed, it’s merely a cudgel to silence you. If we let the powerful define equity or use the word carelessly, it becomes another tool for the powerful. In this instance, I would argue that the word equity is being used to silence the Asian community. It’s divide and conquer. The Board and administration has decided that their decision is equitable and just, therefore any opposition is by definition inequitable and unjust.

Which equity values are they pursuing? Is it a universal value of reforming oppressive structures? If so, their authoritarian stance is questionable. Are they pushing some standard of serving the various communities in Palo Alto equitably? This fails based on the widespread community opposition to this policy decision.

This seems to be a pattern at PAUSD and I just do not get it. It's been going on for years, since I was a student. Staff make poor, uninformed decisions and when students speak up, they're brushed off with bogus explanations. Then parents get involved and staff cut off communication. This goes on for weeks or months until a board meeting. People speak at open forum and the issue starts getting negative press. Finally in an attempt to "save face" the board does a 180 and forces staff's hand. Somehow what was previously "impossible" is magically on the table within hours or days. This is such a waste of time for everyone.

The amount of gaslighting is also unreal, particularly by the superintendent. After PAUSD unilaterally cancels the offering, students are left in limbo for over a month. Foothill saves the day by promising an online section of Math 1C. Then Austin has the nerve to start claiming "the class was never canceled". In response to the open letter, Austin tells students and parents they need to be more resilient to news they don't like and need to stop acting like victims?

PAUSD's baseless decision and lousy excuses started the whole fiasco in the first place. They're the ones targeting high achieving students with this cancellation and absurd math placement policies. It's unfair, and arguably discriminatory. The board needs to go in 2024. Hopefully some of these staff leave with them.

[Portion removed.]

No wonder enrollment continues to decline. Smart parents with the means are pulling out, and those without the means are receiving a "product" that has been clearly degraded under Austin's leadership. Thus, his only recourse is to go on the [portion removed] attack because the facts and data do not back his so called Promise. He's not even coming close in that realm, and he knows it and thus defaults to the only thing he seems to do well.

Gunn Math Instructional Lead David Deggeller wrote an opinion piece in the Oracle stating "...most college admissions offices DO NOT WANT TO SEE EXTRA math on your transcript, nor are they impressed by a student who takes Calculus 'early.'”
Web Link

However, this article is in diametric opposition to his recent (May 23, 2023) board speech in which he argues that Multivariable Calculus should NOT be offered because colleges WANT TO SEE that an applicant takes the highest level of math offered at the school. If MVC is offered, then that is the expected level. If it only goes up to calculus, that is the standard so it is more "equitable" because more students can reach that level.
Web Link

So which is it? Do colleges want to see MORE or LESS math?

Canceling MVC from the course catalog is pointless and does not create "equity" because advanced students will take it regardless. Those students will anyway receive the credit with bonus point when the University of California and other colleges recalculate the GPA from both the PAUSD and community college transcripts. It is not a closed system. Furthermore, PAUSD becomes the only district among our peers (and has already become a laughingstock) that does not offer MVC in the course catalog. Our leadership is deluding themselves and causing many students a lot of inconvenience, including having to sacrifice extracurriculars as well as risking being run over by a car while biking between campuses in the dark.

(This insanty aside, I hear Mr. Deggeller is an excellent teacher).