Harvard Launches ‘Introductory’ Math Course for Students Due to Covid Learning Deficit
“Students don’t have the skills that we had intended downstream in the curriculum, and so it creates different trajectories in students’ math abilities”
How does one even get into Harvard without high school level math skills?
The Harvard Crimson reports:
Harvard Launches New Intro Math Course to Address Pandemic Learning Loss
The Harvard Math Department will pilot a new introductory course aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students, according to Harvard’s Director of Introductory Math Brendan A. Kelly.
The course, titled Math MA5, will run alongside two established math courses — Math MA and MB — with an expanded five-day schedule.
Kelly said that students in MA5 will meet with “one of two instructors all five days” with “a variety of different activities” on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic led to gaps in students’ math skills and learning abilities, prompting the need for a new introductory course.
“The last two years, we saw students who were in Math MA and faced a challenge that was unreasonable given the supports we had in the course. So we wanted to think about, ‘How can we create a course that really helps students step up to their aspirations?’” he said.
“Students don’t have the skills that we had intended downstream in the curriculum, and so it creates different trajectories in students’ math abilities,” Kelly added.
Despite the schedule differences, MA5 will reflect the material and structure of MA and MB, collectively known as Math M.
“Math MA5 is actually embedded in Math M,” Kelly said.
“They’ll have the same psets, they’ll have the same office hours, they’ll have MQC, they’ll take the same exams,” Kelly added, referring to the department’s Math Question Center. “So if you’re in MA5, you will experience Math M.”
In addition to traditional placement tests, freshmen who placed into Math MA or 1A were required to take an additional skills check to determine their recommended enrollment.
Hat tip to Buck Throckmorton at Ace of Spades HQ.
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Comments
Speaks well for American schools.
IDK. I graduated High School, worked for a year then into military for several before ETS and the college fund. I had to take a few remedial algebra and pre calc classes to get up to speed. That was 30+ yrs ago.
They need the remedial math courses for students who were admitted to achieve “equity.” The “pandemic loss” nonsense is a convenient excuse.
When I was advising Freshmen at Harvard (1970’s, before DEI), I didn’t see students who weren’t ready for freshman calculus. The question was always whether to place them into Calculus I or Calculus II. I generally recommended Calc I, because their calculus class in high school was likely taught at a lower level, and Calc I would give them some review and get them off to a good start.
Sure, blame it on covid.
It’s been conventional wisdom for over a century that MIT students can’t write, and Harvard students can’t count.