Math literacy — using numbers to understand real-world problems — should be the goal of high school math classes, concludes a report from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. NCTM critiques the “algebra-geometry-algebra 2 trifecta,” writes Ed Week‘s Stephen Sawchuk. In addition to preparing students for college and careers, math coursework should help students “identify, interpret, and critique math in social, scientific, and political systems; to understand math

Algebra 2 is the gatekeeper to college, writes Pamela Burdman, of Just Equations on EdSource Today. Many students never make it past. “A quiet revolt against the dominance of algebra” could widen the pathway to college, she writes. Thomas Navas tackles a problem in Data Science class at Francis Polytechnic High. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/Los Angeles Times) The traditional high school sequence — Algebra 1, Geometry and Algebra 2 — often leaves students discouraged, Burdman writ