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  • Advanced math in high school prepares students for STEM and data science careers

    Advanced math in high school prepares students for STEM and data science careers


    A high school student contemplates an assignment in math class.

    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    California, along with many other states and nations, has experienced a dramatic increase of student interest in data and computer science careers. Along with the broader tech industry, these fields have been undergoing exponential growth in recent years that’s expected to continue as artificial intelligence (AI), computing platforms and their applications continue to reach every aspect of society.

    The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 36% employment growth for data scientists by 2031. California businesses and other sectors are the top home for many of these high-paying careers.

    It’s the responsibility of our state’s academic systems to educate future data-driven leaders in many areas — tech, finance, business, entertainment, biomedicine and health, climate and sustainability, engineering, law, social welfare, public policy, government and education itself, as well as in innovative approaches to the arts and humanities.

    A report recently issued by a work group for the University of California’s Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) concluded that the three most popular high school data science courses being offered in the state do not “even come close to meeting the required standard to be a ‘more advanced’ course” and “are not appropriate as recommended 4th year mathematics courses.”

    We applaud the faculty and staff, across the UC system, who helped develop this report and its recommendations. And we’re delighted by the quick response from the UC Office of the President this month, which shared the message with high school counselors and advisers, summarizing the report and explaining additional steps that UC is taking to implement the BOARS recommendations for the 2025-26 academic year.

    This is a noteworthy example of the California educational system working well and listening to expert feedback in order to best serve its students. Hundreds of university professors in the state and beyond came out against the rapid adoption of high school data science classes that were being offered as a supposed substitute for advanced algebraic math, or Algebra II. While these introductory data science courses may whet high school students’ appetites, if they are taken at the exclusion of Algebra II, students will not be adequately prepared for science and technology majors in college. We must make sure that the prerequisites for admission to our colleges and universities adequately prepare students to pursue careers in these fields.

    Other Perspectives on this topic

    This could leave the impression that we don’t support data science — which is far from the truth! We believe that data science is an important discipline to study and a career path for making important contributions in our communities and world. Data science can be a route to increased data literacy, enabling students to distinguish between real information and misinformation and the skills to pursue data-driven approaches to whatever their passions and wherever their careers may lead.

    Our data science program at UC Berkeley’s College for Computing, Data Science, and Society is the top-ranked program for undergraduate students in the country. We’ve been active in providing curriculum materials to other institutions in California and around the world, including community colleges and universities. We’ve hosted educators across a broad range of academic institutions, including high schools, at an annual conference on data science education for the last six years.

    We know from years of study and practice that learning math is cumulative. In order for California students to be adequately prepared for the science and technology majors they may choose to pursue in college — including data and computer science — the advanced math curriculum in high school is essential. While data science and statistics courses have been rapidly added to high school options and are welcome additions, these courses cannot replace the foundational math content found in Algebra II. We also acknowledge, and encourage, innovative curricula aiming to teach Algebra II via the context of data science, as such courses could be appropriate.

    We applaud UC and California decision-makers for their recognition that Algebra II is necessary student preparation for the successful completion of college degrees that require a strong grounding in math, including data and computer science. We welcome opportunities to continue this conversation and promote successful outcomes by ensuring students obtain the math knowledge and skills to pursue careers in science and technology.

    •••

    Jennifer Chayes is dean of the UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society, and professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, information, mathematics and statistics.

    Jelani Nelson is a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley.

    The opinions in this commentary are those of the authors. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • Changing careers might mean becoming a student again – and that’s OK

    Changing careers might mean becoming a student again – and that’s OK


    When I decided to enroll in community college, my goal wasn’t to get a degree — I wanted a new job.

    I have my bachelor’s degree in acting and was a professional actor until the pandemic. At 25, I was happy with my life as an actor. My calendar was even booked out for the entire year, performing in theaters across the state of Washington.

    A week before I was laid off from a theater contract, I saw a video of NPR host Korva Coleman reading the hourly headlines. I watched her effortlessly move through the segment as she held her script and pressed play on audio clips, while simultaneously keeping herself to time. It felt like watching live theater for the first time.

    “I wish I could do that,” I thought.

    I never got another acting contract after the pandemic, and all of a sudden, I was 28. My acting resume suddenly looked useless to me and my other resume was just a list of odd jobs I did to support myself as an actor.

    My plan before the pandemic was to move to Los Angeles to further my career. I still made the move even though I let acting go. The only thing I still had in common with my previous life was my commute to work as a waitress — listening to the news. I thought about Korva Coleman operating a radio board. 

    I wasn’t alone in having an existential career change crisis at this time. In 2021, a U.S. Catalyst/CNBC poll said that 50% of employees wanted to make a career change because of the pandemic. I spent my days off looking at job postings for my local NPR affiliate stations that I wasn’t qualified for. I would get frustrated that I couldn’t intern because I wasn’t a student. 

    That’s when I decided to enroll at Pasadena City College. I started last spring with the goal of landing an internship — being a student was just a title to qualify.

    Everything I did during my first semester was strategic. I picked Pasadena Community College because it offered internships directly with LAist (formerly KPCC), a non-profit newsroom. I enrolled only in classes that would give me resume-building skills and certificates. By the end of my first semester, with only a couple completed courses, I networked my way to landing the internship position at LAist.

    This past summer marked the end of my yearlong internship and, through no fault of my own, I do not have a job.

    It still takes all my willpower not to count this as a defeat. 

    I told myself the title of student was just a qualifier for the internship, but I still made sure I got straight A’s. I took on leadership positions at the school newspaper while I was doing my office work for LAist in class. Anytime I wasn’t at school or at my internship, I was working as a server at a restaurant to pay my bills.

    More than 65% of community college students are working more than part-time, according to recent research. And, according to a survey by the RP Group, a nonprofit research center affiliated with the California community colleges, one-third of would-be returning community college students haven’t re-enrolled because they’ve prioritized work. 

    After this year, I wasn’t planning on enrolling back in school for the fall. But then my journalism professor approached me to be editor-in-chief for the campus newspaper, The Courier. I didn’t respond to him for weeks because I was still in the mindset that my return to college was strictly for the career. Being a student doesn’t pay for my rent, gas and food.

    When I was a student in my undergraduate theater program, a professor told me that you should only take an acting job if it meets two of three requirements:

    1. It is a paid job and it pays well,
    2. It offers an opportunity to network and grow as an actor,
    3. And/or it is a dream role.

    In other words, should an opportunity only fulfill one of these requirements, don’t bother with it. However, you should not expect every opportunity in your life to meet all three points. Those are few and far between.

    I thought about her advice a lot when I returned to college at PCC. Taking the role of editor-in-chief barely makes two out of the three requirements — but then I remembered that this list was to help you with taking jobs in your career, not for being a student.

    Being the editor-in-chief this semester has allowed me to push myself to be a better reporter, a stronger editor and a peer to turn to if a student needs help. I get weekly joy from reading work from my classmates who chose to show up simply because they want to learn. 

    For the first time in this academic journey to change careers, I have found myself at peace being a student learning in a classroom. While I’m still anxious about the unknown, I’m allowing myself to appreciate that I made the first step on this long journey towards a new career.

    •••

    Laura Dux is a second-year journalism and radio broadcast major at Pasadena City College and editor-in-chief of the student-run newspaper, The Courier. She is a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • Crowded classes, staff shortages, insufficient pay are making some California teachers rethink careers

    Crowded classes, staff shortages, insufficient pay are making some California teachers rethink careers


    Kindergarten teacher Carla Randazzo watches a student write alphabet letters on a white board at Golden Empire Elementary School in Sacramento.

    Credit: Rich Pedroncelli / AP Photo

    Insufficient school funding is hurting California teachers and their students, according to “The State of California Public Schools,” a report from the California Teachers Association released Tuesday. 

    The lack of funding has meant insufficient wages and high health insurance premiums for teachers, crowded classrooms and a lack of support staff, according to the report, which is based on a December survey of almost 2,000 TK-12 educators.

    Most of the educators surveyed said that their pay is too low to afford housing near their jobs and that their salaries aren’t keeping up with the rising costs of groceries, childcare and other necessary expenses.

    Ninety-one percent of the educators surveyed who rent reported that they can’t afford to buy a home. Only 12% of the teachers surveyed said they were able to save a comfortable amount for the future, while 31% said they are living paycheck to paycheck.

    “Many educators are spread thin and frankly aren’t able to make ends meet financially, and are working in a public school system that continues to be underfunded year after year,” said CTA President David Golberg at a press conference Tuesday.

    The California Teachers Association represents 310,000 of the state’s educators, including teachers, nurses, counselors, psychologists, librarians, education support professionals and some higher education faculty and staff. The survey was conducted for the union by GBAO Strategies, a public opinion research and political strategy firm.

    Teachers who took part in the survey, which targeted teachers throughout the state to provide a representative demographic, overwhelmingly agreed that California schools don’t pay high enough salaries to teachers or have the resources to meet the needs of the students.

    Eighty-four percent said there aren’t enough staff, resources or training to support special education students, and 76% reported that classrooms are overcrowded. Sixty-eight percent said students lack access to mental health support.

    California ranked 18th in per pupil spending in 2021-22, the most recent year nationally comparable data is available – slightly above the national average, according to a November report by the Public Policy Institute of California. When the difference in labor costs were taken into account, California dropped to 34th. In the five years between the 2018-19 school year and the 2023-24 school year, education funding increased nearly 34% in California, according to the PPIC.

    “We’re not even in the top 10 when we compare ourselves to other states,” Goldberg said. “So, that shows you the real disconnect from the wealth that exists in our state and the resources that are going to students and educators.”

    Almost a third of the teachers surveyed have taken second jobs or gig work to make ends meet, 37% have delayed or gone without medical care and 65% have skipped family vacations because of financial constraints, according to the report.

    “These are not extra frills,” Goldberg said. “These are things that we consider part of just the everyday life that us, as human beings and as workers, a dignified life would entail. And, you see that a lot of educators are living with a scarcity around even the most basic things.”

    Four out of 10 of the educators surveyed said they are considering leaving the profession in the next few years. Nearly 80% of the teachers said that finances were the primary reason they would consider the job change.

    Sacramento-area TK teacher Kristina Caswell said a recent increase in the cost of healthcare premiums at her district swallowed up the recent raise she received. She said the affordability tool on the Covered California website rates her healthcare costs for a family of five as unaffordable.

    “I will spend money on my students before I will think about going to that doctor’s appointment that I need and spending that money on maybe a prescription that I need if I get sick,” she said. “That’s something I will stop and think about. Whereas when I’m thinking about my students, I don’t (stop to) think about spending the money.”

    Despite their concerns, 77% of teachers surveyed said they still find their job rewarding, although 62% are dissatisfied with their overall working conditions.

    “I’m really thankful and grateful that I have the job that I have,” Caswell said. “I absolutely love my job. I adore my students, I adore the families that I serve.”





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