Tag: math education

Michael Zwaagstra: One-Size-Fits-All Approaches Don’t Benefit All Students

Commentary It’s a longstanding debate in education. Should schools strive to keep all students, regardless of academic ability, together in the same classroom? Some educators argue that students learn best when placed with others at the same ability level. This is called “streaming” where courses are divided into categories such as “academic” and “applied” and…


When Racism Permeates Math, Science, and Engineering, Can Society Survive?

Commentary I recently attended an online seminar put on by the world’s preeminent society for computer scientists, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), titled, “Language Matters: DEI and the Question of URM.” DEI stands for “diversity, equity, inclusion,” and comprises an entire department in most corporations that oversees the hiring of more minority employees and…


Vancouver School Board’s Phase-Out of High School Honours Courses Axes What’s Best for Students

Commentary Sergio Valdez is the son of Mexican immigrants who attended public school in East Los Angeles in the 1980s. He took Advanced Placement Calculus taught by the exceptional math teacher Jaime Escalante and was an integral part of NASA’s Mars missions. Had Valdez attended high school in Vancouver today, however, none of this would…