Scandal after scandal, feigned concern and hand wringing, the development of a half-baked plan from the district office and school board and then the same thing the next year. Wash, rinse, repeat.

"When students from the Mountain View Whisman district reach high school, signs of a clear, systemic gender gap appears to vanish" , what then is the point of this article? Is the gender gap in middle school predictive of future learning gap, or not?

"I am certain there are females in our district who could be in this class who may be under-identified," Rudolph said. "If half our population is female, why don't we see half of those kids in there?"

My question is:
Why don't we see a superintendent who is capable of actually doing his job?

My experience has been that the district places students into the various math pathways classes. If girls out-perform boys then there should be more girls in the most advanced classes. How can the district not have an answer to this? Are they screwing up the placement of kids into classes?

Of course, it's possible that parents have been asking for their girls to be placed into a lower pathway, but how could the district not know about this (and pro-actively do something about it (by providing guidance to parents)?

Trustees, please get rid of this ridiculous excuse of a superintendent!

I'm not sure why MVWSD "... school officials are taking a closer look at what could be causing fewer girls 'to sign up' for the most challenging middle-school math classes...". You don't get to 'choose' your math courses in middle school.

I'm surprised MVWSD School officials are not aware of this practice.

I hope the new board will please take some responsibility in oversight and get to the bottom issues in our district.

I don't know how this is handled at Graham, but at Crittenden, students are assigned to regular or advanced math classes based on test scores. As the previous commenter noted, choice does not enter into it. This is a change from the former practice, in which parental request could get a student assigned to an advanced math class. This is supposed to make it more fair. But perhaps the powers that be are having second thoughts?

I can't speak to the accuracy of the data for Graham, but the numbers for Crittenden appear to be outdated. Currently we have one section at each grade level for the highest-level math classes. In 8th grade, 13 of the 27 current students are girls. In 7th grade, 12 of 30 are girls. In 6th grade, 18 of 32 are girls. In other words, in 8th grade the gender split is almost even, in 7th there are slightly more boys, and in 6th there are slightly more girls. The change from year to year likely reflects the normal variation in different student cohorts.

What do you mean "Fewer girls enrolled in advanced math"? In middle school, you are assigned a math class, based on a test. You don't enroll in a course.

Are you suggesting that boys are smarter than girls?

[Portion removed; don't make sweeping derogatory generalizations with no supporting evidence.] Some students are highly willing to learn and some are not. With such an adolescent mind, teens are more willing to reply to helping hands with a "gtfo" attitude. If someone is stubborn enough to NOT want to learn, just let them find what they have a passion for.

This does not apply to all students, only the ones who don't take school seriously.

I am glad the DO administration is looking into this. This was not done in the past. Many of us have been asking for better reports, with better data and statistics, to support figuring out better public policy.

In the past - documents that I got from the district clearly showed that parent pressure, from some elementary school parents, was being applied to the Middle School Principals. 'My kid don't quite make the test cut - but - bend the rules please.' It came mostly from the South of El Camino schools. How much this pressure/assignment may have affected proportions - was not documented.

The high school district clearly does not use this mis-assignment process. That is how the high school district avoided a lawsuit on the issue! They don't cross the line / and they can well document it to organizations that have the money - and the legal expertise to bring suit for disadvantaged students & families.

Math railroading - Hispanic students into the slow track. Notice that this appeared also. They are overrepresented on the slow track. What is the Target Student Supplemental Programs response to this fact (TSSP)? There should be 20% more money - for elementary programs for these students. Supplementary programs, new programs, targeted programs. Not pull-out or $$ for everyone. After school, Saturdays, in the summer for Target Students.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste - why are we wasting so many young minds?

What is the criteria or test scores needed for students to be placed in the path where Alg II is in 9th grade, and what is the criteria or scores needed to be placed in path where Geometry is in 9th grade?

In our experience we had no choice as to what level math our middle school girl was placed. We got the bottom of the teaching pool with a terrible math teacher who does not like teaching. Even though our middle school girl tested high in math she was put in the lowest math class with the lowest uninterested students. The teacher told us at conferences that students in her class will not move up. We were told there was simply no room in the upper level math class. (Even though our MVWSD girl student had an A+ in the class.)

This report is accurate and embarrassing stain on the MVWSD.

Kevin,

I want to underscore a fact articulated by several of the other commenters. The middle school students at Graham (and I believe Crittenden) don't "sign up" for a particular math class. The math classes are assigned by the schools based on test scores and perhaps teacher input (I don't know how much teacher input is involved). Some parents then complain that their kids have been placed in a class below their skill level, and the school either moves these kids up or it doesn't (I don't know how often that happens). The reason for the disproportionate number of boys in higher math classes cannot be a failure of girls to "sign up" for higher level math. Instead, either the schools are choosing to place the girls in lower level classes at the outset, or the parents of boys are complaining more frequently that their children need to be "moved up," and the schools are acceding to the complaints.

Can you make this report available to the public, perhaps by linking to it from the article?

Thank you for your always excellent journalism.

Yes, my daughter was "placed" in the 6.0 level, though her score was on the high side for that level and she was bored in 6th grade math. We didn't ask that she be pushed up (plenty of kids in the 6.2 seemed to struggle) and she is doing well in the mid-level course. She'll take geometry in 9th grade, which seems fine to me, since she'll get to calculus in her senior year.


In any case, that will be the level of most entering 9th graders from Los Altos schools, right? Not sure why freshmen need to be taking Algebra 2. Maybe instead of all this math freakout, we could offer some students another elective period and put some fun/passion back into middle school education.

Thank you parent commenters. This is EXACTLY the problems and reports I was trying to sweat out of Dr. Rudolph over the past year (my last year in office)! Went to the mat - in public. "Reports on middle school math pathways." (I know - I lost). There had been no reports on the 3 track middle school math tracking - (that the Crittenden math teachers from 3-4 years ago publicly begged the Board to Not Implement for Common Core).

This starts to be the first data that we as a community have seen (guess what, a 'slight crack of light, is better than Total Darkness'). This is Ellen Wheeler's "lance". I expect her to defend "math pathways, math tracking" to her very last breath!

@Steven Nelson

"...that the Crittenden math teachers from 3-4 years ago publicly begged the Board to Not Implement for Common Core..."

Well, I certainly have plenty of arguments with Common Core myself, but I think it's more of a state-level issue and I doubt any local public districts would be able to stand up against CC for long with the state so fully behind it. I hope I'm wrong here by the way.

"This is Ellen Wheeler's "lance". I expect her to defend "math pathways, math tracking" to her very last breath!"

Again, I have concerns over "math tracking" and assuming it can be of great benefit, but I still worry about the implementation methods.

When I was in Jr. High school my test results on various subjects prompted the school to try to get my parents to agree to skip me ahead a whole grade year and when my parents refused (It was made clear to me by the school that I had no voice in the matter and nobody was going to ask my opinion) the school called them back in for a meeting to discuss the same issue every quarter.

The next year (and the next school because we moved each summer) they said I could now skip ahead directly to High School (again I was told by the school my opinion was not wanted) and my parents refused and again the school tried every quarter to change their minds.

My opinion that nobody wanted was that regardless of what their tests told them, I was not ready to skip grades and needed the time to mature.

The one thing I did do was to take an advanced math course as an elective that I chose to do each quarter and could have changed at the next quarter.
Later I moved on to chemistry and physics, but all this advanced work was at my choice and speed.

What we now call "math tracking" may be great for some kids, but I'm not convinced we know how to pick which ones should be given advanced math and which ones are smart enough, but not mature enough to handle it.

The issues of Common Core math and 3 tracked Common Core math are related but not the same. It has to do with the number of topics, and their sequence - but really, it has to do with the depth of topics more than anything else. I understand this a bit, having a secondary CA math credential (not my primary teaching focus) and having gone through the teacher credentialing process during the time of the Common Core discussions, debates, and finally state curriculum adoption.

I hope Dr. Rudolph stays focused on The Dream. That "altruistic world" that ML King spoke about extemporaneously on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial more than half a century ago. The math teachers need to be listened to (anonymously it seems!) because you really can't bring a work force kicking and screaming to 'a scheme' (Like TTO and 3 tracking) that they have not participated in choosing and shaping. Are any math teachers left at Crittenten, from 4 or 5 years ago?

separate but related - what Silicon Valley (more exactly, Mountain View) employees do when they are fed up with decisions-from-the-top (CEO or CAO/DO) that they know do not make sense or are ill conceived or poorly executed.

"The Traitorous Eight" who worked at 391 San Antonio Rd., Mountain View
Web Link

It's a Valley Tradition!

I think it's important parents understand what the criteria or cut scores used (or the formula used for a variety of tests) that determine who is and isn't accelerated in which of the 3 math paths. Does anyone know how it is determined or calculated? Is it happening at several grade levels, or just entering middle school?

Stephenie and Elaine. The District Administration was not able to produce such a report or a criteria document when I made this request, formally, as a Public Records Act Request one year ago. Their records are a mess (just contained in emil discussion - no document or report) and they will not publicly share the very little they have in any reasonable format. (this Ap 6th report was a first in any detail).

The Administrators at Graham and Crittenden are making this mess worse - by not understanding how to keep track of this process - and updating performance records as the years progress. Where is the # of students per-track report (spreadsheet with graphs)? Where is the 'students moved to a lower Track' report / spreadsheet / graph?

We shall see if Kevin at the Voice, is able to extract such documentation and records - any better than I was. It seems so far, he has not been able to do so. My guess- there are almost NO RECORDS of the math tracking process and results. Management by Stumbling Around (a pun on the old HP management slogan).

I totally agree - as a father of two small daughters, I am doing my hardest to encourage them to go to STEM. They are bright, and are matching boys in their class head to head.
But you read articles like this, or like above Web Link and you can't help but feel that society is pushing these girls the other way.
But it's fantastic that we are recognizing the problem such that we can do something about it now. We need more female engineers, they can bring a different and much needed and complementary perspective to the tech profession.

@John Horg

Ah, the "new conformity" movement...so, let's use gender-biased education to "correct" what some people claim is a society bias rather than an authentic personal choices?

"father of two small daughters, I am doing my hardest to encourage them to go to STEM. They are bright, and are matching boys in their class head to head...and you can't help but feel that society is pushing these girls the other way."

The false assumption is that "all else is always equal" and thus if there is any sort of "gap" between any slice of people, then the presumed culprit is a defect in society we must fight.

The fallacy is the belief that we are somehow "in control" of the future choices kids make. It's an ego/fear assumption and we make this same mistake about most issues we have little or no true control over.

We wish to believe we can control the future and if anything does not go the way we "feel" they should, then there MUST be a human culprit to blame!
Because, if there is no culprit, if it's just the natural effects of individuals making personal choices and we cannot perfectly control this, then the world is not really controllable.

That is frightening to most people, so they choose to assume an evil is taking place that can be fought to "correct" the situation because if humans didn't cause it then we have less or no chance of being able to "fix" it.

Is it not equally likely that all kids are different individuals and that in spite of the wishes of the parents, teachers or politicians or how much pressure they apply to kids, the kids will grow up to become what they themselves choose for their own reasons and NOT because there is something fundamentally wrong with society that forces kids to make the politically correct choices?

What's the point of telling kids "do your own thing" if we insist that all pigeon holes must be filled by exactly the same demographics as all the other pigeon holes?

"But it's fantastic that we are recognizing the problem such that we can do something about it now."

Sounds like another version of "imposed conformity" to me.

Couldn't it just be that most girls are NOT feeling fulfilled or remotely attracted to engineering because the work itself bores them?

I've spent decades in high technology and of all the women I've known (coworkers, friends or girlfriends and wife), none of them were personally interested in high tech in the slightest. Even women who work in high tech have no interest in talking about high tech unless it's for work purposes. No "shop talk" outside of working hours, no matter how exciting or cool it may seem to men.

"We need more female engineers, they can bring a different and much needed and complementary perspective to the tech profession."

That is an assumption based on no facts.
I certainly wish more women would find engineering fulfilling and cool and exciting. I certainly wish more women would get seriously passionate about the actual work of high tech engineering. This would make for a happier workplace and more personal relationships where both persons would be able to share what they find exciting with their spouse.

STEM is fine, but assuming that something "evil" is going on that needs to be fixed just because so few women choose to enter engineering is non-sense.

Wow, you really outdid yourself this time in the ignorance of your posting!

I work in a high tech company with LOTS of female leaders, including a female CTO. Not sure where you spent your "decades" of work in high tech, but can imagine that any reasonable colleagues (both male and female) probably want to interact with you as little as possible.

Certainly that's been my feeling based on your countless "oh, I am much smarter than you" posts here in the comments section.

@@ST parent

You seem to have a reading comprehension problem there, since I made no mention of the issues you responded to.

"I work in a high tech company with LOTS of female leaders, including a female CTO."

First,
Women engineers are quite happy to and quite good at carrying on social conversations with any coworkers about any other issues, they just prefer not to "talk shop". Women can also "drop rank" easier than men while socializing.

Second,
I said NOTHING about "female leaders" at all before, but I will now.

The female engineers I have known virtually all of them used engineering positions as a stepping stone to management or other jobs they found more fulfilling. And in my opinion, were better managers than typical male engineers who became managers.

I have known a great many male engineers who were offered promotions to management and refused or actually got promoted, then soon resigned to go back to being engineers. This is because so many male engineers simply love the actual work and find other forms of employment boring.

What I have seen (almost always) is that when a male engineer gets himself into management, they cannot separate themselves from the engineering work to focus on actually being a good manager. They pull-rank to force their engineering views over the objections of the engineers.

Female former engineers who become managers seem not to have this critical problem. They find it easy to allow the engineers to do the engineering and instead focus on being the best managers they can. Their engineering background helps them understand the issues being discussed, but does not compel them to micromanage every little engineering decision the engineers make.

Back to the actual subject,
I was talking about the false assumptions that people make that every possible pigeon hole someone wishes to name must always be filled with an exactly perfect demographic set matching society as a whole. And when any pigeon hole is not a perfect match demographically, then there must be evil at work which must be fought by things like gender-biased education methods.

The theory that we can somehow make every pigeon-hole a perfect demographic match by suppressing the over-represented type and providing type-exclusive boosting education to those deemed under-represented utterly ignores the validity of personal choice and destroys the whole idea of equal education for all.

"equality" does not mean you take all the male runners and tie bowling balls to their legs at the start of the race! It also does not mean you give the women bicycles while the men must run.

Education should be equal for all, not gender-biased to discourage boys from interest in STEM while heavily pushing girls into STEM. If we agree that STEM is good, then it should be equally taught to all kids.

If girls get the STEM experience, but find it less than compelling, fine, that's their decision. If boys get taught something they find they have no interest in, also fine. Education is about offering equal exposure to the full range of subjects and trying to make sure they all learned the subject matter to an acceptable level. What kids choose for their future is up to them as individuals. We shouldn't be shaming kids nor looking for someone to blame if there ends up being a demographic disparity.

There are valid issues which can be improved by providing special assistance to those who actually have special needs. Either physical, or emotional, or things like dyslexia, or English language learner, poverty can be helped quite a bit by free food programs of various types, etc.

None of those worthy efforts is biased against anyone and all can be effective to achieving an equal education for those who could not otherwise.

So they chose to not enroll, or were they not allowed to enroll.
HUUUUUGE difference.
Also, 30 years in MV tech; 5 female bosses, 2 female CEOs out of the 5 companies I worked for.

Kevin of the MV-Voice:

Perhaps we could have some of your excellent reporting on the status of Middle School math for the coming school year:

Middle School Math
6th, 7th, 8th grade sylibii, enrollment & academic performance (Common Core results for 2016-17)

Policy is that there are written course descriptions, with subject matter and student/teacher work explained and available for parents and others. What enrollments are expected or planned for? Are the four math teachers that need to be replaced at Graham already hired? What written criteria are there for 'more advanced' or 'more remedial' student placement? Placement of girls? Integrated or segregated placement of Latinos? (this ain't no Garfield High or "Stand and Deliver" storyline it seems)