Stanford Mathematics Education Professor Who Got Algebra Banned in SF Now Accused of ‘Reckless Disregard for Accuracy’
Jo Boaler is facing allegations of “reckless disregard for accuracy” in her work. An official academic complaint has been filed with Stanford University’s provost and dean of research.
Legal Insurrection has previously reported on Stanford Education Professor Jo Boaler, who was a leader behind the ongoing effort to change the math curriculum framework in California that includes, in part, increasing equity, pushing Algebra 1 back to 9th grade, and applying social justice principles to lessons.
In fact, she was a leading advocate for removing algebra from the San Francisco middle school curriculum.
“We’re not changing or lowering the standards. We’re outlining how inequitable the teaching of math is right now,” said Jo Boaler, a Stanford University math education professor at the forefront of the changes.
March 2024 has not been kind to Boaler. To begin with, on “Super Tuesday,” voters in San Francisco reversed the change in the mathematics curriculum. By over 80% of the vote, the city’s schools must offer Algebra I in 8th grade—overruling the woke ban on the course imposed in the name of racial “equity.”
Now, she is facing allegations of “reckless disregard for accuracy” in her work. An official academic complaint has been filed with Stanford University’s provost and dean of research.
An anonymous complaint was reportedly filed Wednesday with Stanford citing 52 instances in which Jo Boaler allegedly included incorrect information about outside studies in learning, neuroscience and math education in her articles, lectures and books, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Several examples were in a draft of the California K-12 math framework, a guidance document about best practices in teaching math that Boaler co-authored.
The complaint is 100 pages long and cites 52 cases of misrepresentation. One of the misrepresentations appears related to Boaler’s assertions that timed testing causes anxiety.
On the question of timed tests causing “math anxiety,” Boaler has asserted that “researchers now know that students experience stress on timed tests that they do not experience even when working on the same math questions in untimed conditions.” As evidence, she cites a study by psychologist Randall Engle. However, Engle’s paper in question deals with “working memory” rather than student anxiety, and Engle himself called the assessment a “huge misrepresentation” of his work.
Anna Stokke, a mathematics professor at the University of Winnipeg who has studied this claim and found that it contradicts available evidence, said many math teachers nonetheless seem to believe it—and that their belief seems to stem from Boaler.
“I’ve tried to figure out where this misconception comes from among teachers, that timed tests cause math anxiety, and it often seems to lead back to Jo Boaler’s faulty opinion piece,” Stokke told the Washington Free Beacon.
The complaint is a chilling catalog of alleged misrepresentations and cites Stanford University’s own guidelines in its opening.
Stanford’s Faculty Handbook, Section 4.3.1 says:
“(1) In order to maintain the integrity of its teaching and research and to preserve academic freedom, Stanford University demands high standards of professional conduct from its faculty. In the case of a serious violation of these standards, a faculty member may face disciplinary charges under the following procedures.”
In accordance with Stanford’s research and disciplinary policies, the purpose of this document is to report a breach of these high standards of professional conduct and academic duties and to submit a complaint. This complaint alleges that Stanford professor Dr. Jo Boaler has demonstrated a pattern of ‘reckless disregard for accuracy,’ by engaging in multiple instances of citation misrepresentation.
Any research that supports woke policies should be thoroughly reviewed. I look forwardStanford’s response to this complaint, especially given Boaler’s influence on mathematics, a core subject essential to good science and the innovations and discoveries that come from it.
UPDATE:
Stanford Will Not Investigate Mathematics Prof Accused of ‘Reckless Disregard for Accuracy’
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Comments
I have taught teacher education math courses; under no circumstances do you want your child taught math by an education student. The odds are they are both very bad at math, and hate it also.
I was taught geometry in 10th grade by a football coach, who had to teach SOME class in order to remain on the faculty. He was surprisingly good at it, all things considered. I remember him being stumped only once all year. Our text (Jurgenson/Donnelly/Dolciani) was so clear and accessible, I bought a copy for my grandson three weeks ago. They’re doing it in sixth grade now, go figure.
This is great. a teacher who may not be up to it, and who knows he may not be up to it, honestly trying to do his best.
And, I bet that coach has some military history.
To add context, I was teaching them between 2004 and 2006.
They’re bad a history, English and other stuff also.
Accuracy is rayciss.
You spelled Akrissy incorrectly.
If you’re not sure, just aks
Rayciss!
How can maths be raesict? Wasn’t it Africkins who bowt it to the world?
Imagine how unbelievably stupid someone must be to even entertain the notion that math is racist. It shocks the conscience. And yet, there she is, teaching at a ‘prestigious’ university.
“reckless disregard for accuracy” aka a damned liar. Maybe I’m showing my age here.
“Imagine how unbelievably stupid someone must be to even entertain the notion that math is racist. ”
Of course no one actually believe the math is at fault, but they firmly believe that black are stupid and incompetent.
That belief cannot be voiced in this enlightened era, but is the obvious subtext in all their claims of racial inequity.
“Of course no one actually believe the math is at fault, but they firmly believe that black are stupid and incompetent.”
What’s worse is the White Saviors who call others racist, when it is the do-gooders who are the actual racists, and refuse to hold students accountable.
If the course is not taught, one can’t fail. How dare SF ban algebra… it’s a gift from Islam!
I’ve said this for 10+ years.
The absolute most racist people in the US are rich white liberal women, who are so utterly convinced that the ‘lesser races’ cannot survive without their guidance.
No one really appreciates the burden of noblesse oblige more than our Junior League gals. White gloves to the barricades!!
Being less than competent in the subject of mathematics does not make one stupid and incompetent. It simply means one has difficulty learning, grasping, and using that subject. It certainly can and probably will place limits on mastering certain life skills. Has it been shown that Blacks are at a disadvantage when trying to compensate for those limits? I would think yes. Therefore the racism is on the shoulders of those who abandon any standard of showing at least a minimum grasp of the subject in the name of equity. Not on those who notice who is most harmed by such policies.
Limiting one’s stupidity and incompetence to just math is fine if you are looking to be an engineer or biostatistician after all bridges don’t collapse on their own nor do populations panic unless the numbers tell them to. But I think we can all state with confidence that current evidence shows general stupidity and incompetence is no bar to overall success and is indeed a known advantage in many fields.
I have observed more math classes than most professors, having taken Calc 1 twice, Calc 2 three times, Trig twice, and CS580 four times. I have not observed any racial or gender-based differences in the passing/failing groups. The only difference seems to be in the ability to memorize formulas (my great weakness) and apply them accurately. Some minds are square pegs. I’m *great* with regular numbers, but when sin/cos integrals sneak in, that’s the end of it. Thankfully, I haven’t needed to integrate or calculate angles since college.
There is no surprise. It is an absolutely unshakeable rule that the more woke someone is, the more dishonest they are.
Boaler numbers among the uncountable infantile.
This creature at Stanford may be able to do the mental gymnastics required to justify the things she recommends etc. I doubt she or anyone else really believe this stuff but it doesn’t really matter.
However, what does matter a lot is the reason that “polite society” and “enlightened academia” STRICTLY avoids certain taboo topics.
If you’ve ever worked in academia, you know that there’s a strict Code Of Silence.
An Omerta
That is, if the gods came down from on high and confirmed that , in fact, human beings are not all born TOTALLY TOTALLY TOTALLY EQUAL with regard to creativity, music, math, art, reading, language, athletics, charm, sex appeal et al., … well… what then?
The Implications are for some reason just too hot to handle.
So there’s a silent agreement to never discuss any of it.
It’s bizarre.
It really can be quite bizarre.
Going to take a wild guess that she sucks at math as well.
“Show me how the mean times table disrespected your personhood.”
“That is, if the gods came down from on high and confirmed that , in fact, human beings are not all born TOTALLY TOTALLY TOTALLY EQUAL with regard to creativity, music, math, art, reading, language, athletics, charm, sex appeal et al., … well… what then?”
Well for one thing many piano teachers would find themselves spending less time at the liquor store.
“Boaler has asserted that “researchers now know that students experience stress on timed tests that they do not experience even when working on the same math questions in untimed conditions.”
If you can’t do the math when it counts then you can’t do the math.
There has always been stress with timed tests. If it took this long for “researchers” to discover this, then how did they get to their positions? 2+2 shouldn’t take forever.
The funny thing is that her source for that claim openly says she is misrepresenting the study that is being used to justify it. A study on working memory will not be equipped to measure anxiety, anyways.
So if “someone” MIGHT have experienced addl. anxiety forced to take a timed math test 50 years ago (yes, asking for a friend) he/she/they might STILL have an equity-based cause of action lawsuit after all these years?
Have you been reading my diary?
In my years of evaluating students in the public schools: Math has always been the great equalizer for children. It’s the universal language and I see that many children from diverse, bilingual and poor backgrounds often excel in math, whereas they may struggle in English Language arts. The only people these woke polices are hurting are the very kids the think they are helping. What we need is more advanced math in the schools and better integration of it with science, not less math.
“What we need is more advanced math in the schools and better integration of it with science, not less math.”
Yes, parents should ensure that their children’s source of education includes these things, rather than wait for their government schools to provide them.
I also think making sure music and learning a foreign language are part of the course of study is helpful in developing an understanding of maths.
Math has always been the great equalizer for children. It’s the universal language and I see that many children from diverse, bilingual and poor backgrounds often excel in math,
Students for whom English is a second language will have less trouble with math. A soccer star at my high school was from Argentina. His SAT scores were 650 Math, 450 Verbal. Decades later I knew a number of students from China at the local U. Pretty common GRE score for those students: 800 Math, 500 Verbal.
Yeah we are shocked, shocked to find …that a leftist ideologue who wanted to upend a functioning math curriculum to make their academic ‘bones’ would falsify and mislead in order to achieve it.
This goes to show that a doctorate in education lowers the IQ of the person receiving the degree. That goes doubly for Dr. Jill.
Now..now… Dr. Jill did select the correct box of Cracker Jack.
Democrats can get insider information from the Easter Bunny without risking disqualification.
Oh no, now you’ve crossed a red line there. (Yes, I’ve known several.)
Back in 1958, I was among the first in Florida to take algebra in the eighth grade. It was just offered to students hoping to go to college.
It surprises me the absolute nonsense teachers believe to be true. Some crazy lady in a “workshop” misquotes some research she isn’t qualified/smart enough to understand and people take it as the gospel. Education is so absolutely filled with these neuromyths that it would have to have a total redesign of the system to educationally beneficial to society.
“Total redesign” – Easy, peasy. Just subcontract public education to Catholic schools at half the cost.
Hah! Yeah, those family-fortunate kids have a year-&-a-half education bonus benefit on the “privileged” public-school kids in this area during 2020-2021.
But at least the unionized public-school “educators” were still fully-paid, so (almost) everybody wins. Right?
I was born in the late 50s and am from SoCal. My wife is from NorCal and we met at UCLA. We both had learned Algebra in school. Our two sons were born in the mid and late 80s in California and were learning good, but my company promoted me and moved me to the east coast in 96.
We were in Northern VA and found the school system was not good. as they were changing how they taught and we could not get through to teachers, the admin, or the school board. We ended up tutoring each of our sons through every class. Once they graduated each decided on different Trade Schools. They each make well over 6 figures and the cost of the Trade School was less then have a year of college.
China has more STEM Honor Roll students than America has students. Russia, with half the population of America, produces as many STEM graduates as America.
One of the many reasons for America’s underperformance is DEI.
Too bad Trump didn’t address this when he was President for 4 years.
Also, how much emphasis do Chinese and Russian schools put on throwing, hitting, or kicking balls?
There’s a great video online of a grade-school classroom performing timed strip and reassembly of AK47s.
Sorry — Russian grade-school classroom.
China also has parents, particularly mothers, who will commit great physical mayhem on a child who doesn’t hit the books and achieve.
In general, one doesn’t come home with an F on their report card in an Asian family without severe repercussions.
I don’t see the problem. Didn’t we already establish that accuracy is racist? So why should we expect her work to be accurate?
Another woke crybully forced her way up the ladder and because people are too timid to cry “the emperor has no clothes” got far in the field and is busy destroying another generation.
Man, that’s a great phrase: “Forced her way up the ladder.”
I*ve known a few of those persons during my life experiences, too.
Math ed professor… say no more.
FYI – in the wokified world, a “reckless disregard for accuracy” is considered a job well-done.
It explains the trans craze and climate “change.”
The answer to 1 + 1 couldn’t give a flying fuck about the colour of your skin!
As others more “less sweary” have said about, maths is a great equalizer where the answers don’t care about your pronouns or your feelings.
With each passing day,
With each news cycle,
It becomes increasingly apparent that America’s schools routinely employ truly sick individuals.
It’s not that they’re just incompetent. So many of them seem deranged.
On the positive side, nobody can ever again claim that they “had no idea” that the schools and colleges routinely surround your kids with really disturbed people.
smh
Maybe we need better teachers
As they say, those who can, do; those who can’t, teach; and those who can’t teach, teach teachers.
And those who think they know everything spend all day on comments sections making a big show of their MENSA level intellects proud of being the tallest midget in the room.
Someone got triggered
It is all just so sad. Clipping the wings of some high flying students..
Instead of letting them excel?
I still have my Pi Mu Epsilon pin. Proud of it.