The three-year battle over California’s new math framework has produced disaster and chaos on every front. As the battle rages on on the comment boards and on
From ChatGPT to personal finance, nearly every decision we make in our daily lives is now driven by data. Eight of the ten fastest-growing careers this year involve data science.In ten years it will be difficult to find any job no Data driven.
We need to teach students basic information literacy in K-12 to prepare them for this new reality. We can all see this, but somehow current politics have turned this idea into a heated debate.
New critics of data science teaching seem to have three common objections. Their first claim is that data science programs somehow “downplay” mathematics. This is certainly possible, especially if a school district considers data-related courses a form of remediation, but it should not be the case. Data science is a very challenging discipline that combines traditional mathematics, statistics, computer programming and complex data sets. In many ways, it demands more from students, requiring critical thinking, creativity, and a nuanced understanding of the context in which the material is generated.
A second objection is that studying data science in high school is somehow illegitimate because students do not yet possess the mathematical skills required of professional data scientists. This is a strange argument. Will high school students never learn physics because they don’t understand differential calculus? If they didn’t know the rules of iambic pentameter, couldn’t they find beauty in Shakespeare’s sonnets?
A third argument is that data science courses will crowd out calculus or some of the other math required for college STEM degrees. This is an important question, but it assumes that every part of today’s lesson is absolutely critical to the path. Do we really think this is true? I’ve spent many evenings at the kitchen table helping my kids with their homework, and I suspect that’s not the case.We (parents) should not ignore more 130 university subjects As the world changes, basic knowledge of data and statistics, including mathematics and engineering, is now required.
We adults can stand there undecided, but young people aren’t going to wait for us to figure it out. In college, students are rushing toward data science courses at an alarming rate.The number of undergraduate data science degree programs is exploding nationwide in every state.At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, it quickly became Fastest growing major.Not to be outdone, the University of California, Berkeley, recently launched the whole university Work on this topic. Our own institution, the University of Chicago, employs 25 data science faculty to serve student needs.
Sixteen other states have officially initiated or recommended data science in K-12. Some are creating year-round courses, while others are completely redesigning their math paths. The nation’s leading STEM high school is teaching students the UC Berkeley Data8 program, one of the best college data science courses in the country.Just recently, a group of AP Statistics teachers Organized A national data science challenge that attracted more than 5,000 students.
Without leadership from policymakers and educators, this revolution will still happen, but the benefits will flow disproportionately to already advantaged students. Wealthy parents and tech workers teach their children these skills through summer and after-school programs. Is this what we want? Or do we want to ensure that every child acquires at least a basic level of data literacy?
If this all rings true for you, and if you think modern K-12 education needs at least some data science guidance, you can help us take action. Ask your local school to consolidate data across K-12 subjects. Ask your teachers to introduce modern data tools into the way they teach. and requires school leaders to provide data-centered mathematics curricula and provide educators with appropriate resources to support them in doing so.
Let’s lay down our weapons in this math war and start fighting for our children’s futures again.
Steven Levitt is an economist, founder of the Radical Innovation Center for Social Change (RISC) at the University of Chicago, and author of Freakonomics.
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