Faithful, long-suffering San Franciscans, mark your calendars: algebra for middle schoolers will make the ballot in March 2024. 

Specifically, voters will be asked to weigh in on a measure urging the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) to again offer Algebra I to eighth graders, after the district scrapped the course in 2014. At the time, administrators justified their decision with a vague hodgepodge of equity-related concerns. Eighth graders, particularly black and Hispanic students, were failing out of mandatory algebra classes at high rates, admins said, which put them at a comparative disadvantage in high school. It wasn’t an option to allow high-achievers to test into the course, because ‘tracking’ (separating students based on demonstrated ability) was “simply wrong.” And anyway, wasn’t the whole paradigm of test-based math instruction increasingly passé? “What it means to be good in math is no longer about answer-getting and speed,” an administrator said at the time. “To be truly deeply proficient in math, you have to defend your reasoning and understand how a mathematical situation would apply in the real world.”

It was inspiring rhetoric from a cadre of Paulo Freire-reading bureaucrats. But how has the decision played out, ten years on? Well, a recent study of the policy found that “large ethnoracial [enrollment] gaps” in both AP and ‘District-defined’ advanced math courses “did not change in the post-reform period,” though overall enrollment in AP Calculus, which requires a strong foundation in algebra, initially fell sharply. Subsequent reforms allowing students to enroll in summer Geometry and Algebra II/Pre-Calculus “compression” courses attenuated this drop, but did nothing to alter persistent disparities in black and Hispanic enrollment in AP math. Conclusion? The ‘reform’ did little for the struggling students it purported to help, though it did make life harder for those who must now take faster-paced courses to stay on track. 

Administrators have since stated as much. The SFUSD Superintendent recently acknowledged that the post-reform math curriculum is “not working,” and a group of SFUSD principals and teachers just went to Japan (on the taxpayers’ dime, of course) to learn the secret of Japanese students’ consistently high performance on international math tests. The ballot measure, though largely symbolic, is a positive step toward undoing the policy.

But the bigger issue, which goes far beyond San Francisco, is the wrongheaded philosophy that motivated administrators to eliminate algebra from middle school in the first place. This is the same philosophy that has led educators across California to push for replacing algebra and calculus with watered-down “data science” courses, or administrators in Illinois to implement racially segregated math and English classes. It’s a philosophy that holds, if a given category of students happens to be struggling in an advanced class, the solution is to eliminate the class altogether, rather than to re-evaluate teaching strategies — a cynical, superficial ‘solution’ that punishes and demeans students across the board. 

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City Hall

votes, policy, and more from the city’s executive and legislative branches (and their sprawling army of unelected hall monitors)

• Yesterday, the Board of Supervisors voted 6-5 to add Supervisor Safaí’s “cop tax” amendment to Supervisor Dorsey’s proposed charter amendment establishing minimum staffing requirements for SFPD. The amendment, which was initially co-sponsored by Supervisor Walton (who three years ago called to defund the police), provoked a furious op-ed response from Supe Dorsey.

• To no one’s surprise, the Board of Supervisors failed to meet the state’s initial deadline (November 24) for passing Mayor Breed’s “constraints reduction” ordinance, which would expedite the housing approval process. The city now has until December 28 to pass the ordinance before it loses control over its own housing policy, along with millions of dollars in state aid, state officials warned. (Read why this might actually be an excellent development in last week’s newsletter.)

• Speaking of — the Land Use committee forwarded an amended version of the Mayor’s ordinance that would expand commercial zoning in certain districts (potentially allowing for more retail and restaurant development) and facilitate approval of neighborhood amenities in public spaces — but yesterday the Board decided to delay voting on it until December 5.

• A 90-day ban on street vending along Mission Street championed by Supervisor Ronen took effect this Monday. Officials are scrambling to clamp down on the explosion of illegal and stolen goods sales that followed a state-wide decriminalization of street vending in 2018.

• Supervisor Dorsey plans to call for a hearing to review the effect APEC had on small businesses, amid reports of sharp decreases in sales and foot traffic from owners. 

• “Feels like we are living below the Mason-Dixon Line,” said Supervisor Walton when asked for his thoughts on Mayor Breed’s recent proposals to curb the power of the (unelected and unaccountable) Police Commission, and require drug testing for welfare recipients. 

• BART and Muni will receive the bulk of a $776 million bailout for Bay Area transit if they take steps to reduce rampant fare evasion, state officials say. 

• Supervisor Chan failed to schedule legislation funding Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs), a crucial tool for spotting stolen or crime-involved vehicles, ahead of the last Budget Committee meeting of the year.

• Yesterday, as the Board of Supervisors’ Rules Committee debated an ordinance which would increase oversight on the city’s multimillion-dollar contracts with nonprofits, a resident gave public comment and read an excerpt from our piece on the Dream Keeper Initiative — check out the video below. (And, in good news to all in favor of government accountability, the ordinance passed committee!)

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Rose Alert

notes from san francisco’s beloved class of local activists

• Saturday, Alameda County DA Pamela Price (who is currently facing a recall campaign led by residents concerned about her soft-on-crime approach to prosecution) held an event called “Know Your District Attorney.” Thomas Hawk, a local photographer, attended and shared a fascinating set of observations. Some highlights:

“The event started out with a cultural dance presentation and then a prayer to our ancestors where for some reason a Poinsettia plant was watered in front of the crowd while we bowed our heads in prayer.”

“[A]ll questions were required to be submitted in writing ahead of time and we were told that there would be no questions taken from the audience -- and if anyone from the audience interrupted with a question they would escorted out of the building.”

“Then we got a panel lecture from some of the non-profits advocating for her brand of progressiveness while complaining about more moderate district attorney's in the past.”

• Randy Shaw, editor of Beyond Chron, a publication which years ago put out a glowing profile of then-community activist Dean Preston, took issue with Preston’s recent claims that “the billionaire class” in SF is “waging war on working people.” “Where is the outcry over the city subjecting working-class and low-income Tenderloin residents [to] unsafe conditions?” Shaw asks.

• The Oakland City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, as did the Emeryville City Council. No word yet on whether city councilors have passed a resolution condemning the arsonist who appeared to intentionally set fire to the much-closer-to-home Emeryville Target last week, though. 

Memo Sacramento

a brief, essential spotlight on the state of california

• A new study found that non-elderly homeless people in California are around 3.5 times more likely to die in any given year than their non-homeless counterparts. The senior researcher speculates that “factors like having a disability, being unemployed and not having a support network are associated with earlier deaths,” strangely making no mention of the city’s historic, debilitating fentanyl crisis.

• Most Californians don’t own a home until they are 49 — the oldest age of majority homeownership in the country — according to a new analysis from Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation.

• The LA Times profiled Sonja Shaw, the Chino Valley soccer mom-turned-school board president leading California’s “parental rights movement.”

• Starting next year, California will require “media literary content” be incorporated into its math, science, and social science curriculum frameworks. “Teaching media literacy is a key strategy to support our children…[who] are inundated with misinformation and disinformation on social media networks,” said assemblymember Marc Berman, who authored the law.

• In assembling any future list of “trusted” media sources, will Pirate Wires make the cut? Stay tuned!

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Around Town

stories from the neighborhood you should know about

• An “informal public survey” will be held next week to allow people to vote on preferred new names for Golden Gate Park’s Stow Lake, which is set to be renamed due to namesake William W. Stow’s antisemitism. We expect this to be a perfectly sane and reasonable process.

• Free “recovery resource” books (including Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous’ “big books”) are going fast at the Main Library in Civic Center.

• A “private school construction boom” is underway across San Francisco. (Could it have anything to do with the fact that SFUSD is cash-strapped and math-averse?)

• A Tesla Cybertruck was reportedly towed after it blocked a driveway in Haight-Ashbury over Thanksgiving weekend. (Cybertruck customer deliveries officially start tomorrow.)

• Federal investigators have charged a 20-year-old San Francisco man with the murder of a man whose body was found at Chrissy Field a few weeks ago. Feds confirmed that a “loud, predawn” FBI raid of a home in the Excelsior District was connected to the murder. 

• Film legend John Waters sold out his Christmas Show at the Great American Music Hall. 

• In a long-standing Thanksgiving tradition, St. Anthony Society served nearly 3,000 meals to people in the Tenderloin last Thursday.

• SF Eater profiled Toriano Gordon, plant-based food mogul and author of a forthcoming vegan soul food cookbook. 

• Fan Expo San Francisco kicked off last weekend with an appearance by Mark Hamill of Star Wars fame. Organizers estimated around 35,000 will attend.

Catch you next Wednesday.

— Sanjana