The Alarming State of PPS’s Math Education (III): The Mistreatment and Injustice

Recently updated on May 5th, 2023 at 09:47 pm

Since the publication of this article, PPS’s current math supervisor has not been retained and will not be returning for the 2023-2024 school year.

This article is part of a series aimed at bringing to light long-standing issues within the Princeton Public Schools that have remained largely unknown to the public outside of PPS families, and have been overlooked by district leadership.  — editor

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We knew that the stories we featured in The Alarming State of PPS’s Math Education (I): Stories From Parents were just the beginning, and we were right. Since the article’s release, more and more parents have stepped forward with their accounts of maltreatment and inequality. In this follow-up piece, we present stories from two families that are nothing short of outrageous and deeply troubling. They reveal a school district that has woefully failed its students.

Story #4

Throughout our attempts to get our daughter placed into an appropriate math class in sixth grade this year (fall 2022), the math department failed to answer emails; did not give out information in a timely and transparent manner, often giving out incorrect, misleading, or unclear information; and the placement exam itself was problematic. The entire process was – in a word – a shambles. Our daughter’s placement was not finalized until early November, at which point we felt it was too late to consider moving her to a more advanced class. The result was an entire year of learning no new material during regular class time; the only new content has come by way of extra credit worksheets (provided by a heroic math teacher).

On the placement exam itself: because of scheduling difficulties over the summer, our daughter was unable to take the exam until early September; results were not disseminated until weeks later; the test – for determining potential advancement to seventh grade – contained questions on material not covered in sixth grade; there was a testing calculator required to complete the test embedded in the exam software, but students were not told about this at the time (our daughter almost walked out of the test in tears, extremely uncharacteristically).

Our daughter has just taken the placement exam for 7th grade math. When asked if the questions were similar to those from the test she had taken in the fall, she said yes. When asked if she had learned the then-unfamiliar material in the meantime, she said no. The outcome may therefore be exactly the same this time around, even after a year’s additional math instruction.

The math department’s detracking of sixth grade mathematics has been a disaster for children like our daughter, yet they continue to explore further detracking possibilities. The department’s level and clarity of communication with parents is woefully inadequate. And the department puts up roadblocks to advancement at every turn – even for students from groups traditionally underrepresented in mathematics, like girls. This is shameful, and a clear disservice to the cause of equity.

– A parent from Riverside area

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Story #5

We relocated to the district in the fall of 2019 with the hope that it would provide an excellent academic environment for my highly motivated son. However, the reality was far from our expectations. For more than two years, I had to deal with an extremely bright and motivated kid bored to tears at the hands of the district math supervisor, who showed little interest in his academic progress. Despite all this, my son persisted, worked hard, and eventually muscled his way into accelerated math. Recently, he took the PSAT and scored in the 99th percentile with ease, hardly requiring any effort.

However, the treatment he suffered at the hands of the PPS math supervisor is still having a detrimental impact on his studies. My son was a year ahead in math, his favorite subject, in the previous school district. When we moved to Princeton, he was in 7th grade at PUMS, and the previous year when he was in 6th grade he had completed 7th grade math, earning an A in both semesters. He was placed in regular math when we moved to the district, which, based on his aptitude and background in math, was the first error. This meant 2 years of Algebra 1. He was extremely bored in math, so we met with the math supervisor and the following happened:

• The supervisor said that if he completed Algebra 1 in Khan Academy the following summer, he could be placed in Accelerated math in the fall.
• He completed Algebra 1 in Khan Academy over the summer, earning an A.
• At the end of the summer, the supervisor reneged on her promise and told us she had not said what she said.
• She administered a completely unfair “placement” test to my son that did not at all test whether or not he would be a good student if moved into accelerated math. The test should have covered Algebra 1, Part 2, which he was trying to test out of. As we were leaving the placement test, she gave him a hand-written note which said that it was too bad he hadn’t passed, but that he should keep trying in life. And at this point, his test had not been graded. That was extremely unprofessional of her.
• My son was subjected to a second extremely long, slow year of Algebra 1 (that he had studied for over the summer, so now it was even worse because he was REALLY bored).
• He was told that if he completed Algebra 2 over the summer, he could move into Accelerated math.
• He completed the district’s Algebra 2 class over the following summer. He received an A and we think he was the only person in his class to pass out of it.
• At this point, my son is in 10th grade and excelling in Accelerated math, but since he took that class in the summer, he is excluded from studying at Princeton University as a senior, as other top math students at PHS are able to do.

So the bottom line is that he’s being penalized for being a student who arrived from outside the district and had the misfortune of having his academic placement dictated by the current math supervisor. And this is the type of student the district’s math supervisor is trying very hard to hold back in math. Students in the district deserve to be treated like individuals that the district actually cares about and they deserve to have their hopes and dreams nurtured rather than crushed.

As a single mother, we live in an apartment and we are not wealthy. This is a shameful way to “welcome” an outsider into the district. And it is really sad as a parent to watch your child’s enjoyment of school die a slow death at the hands of an uncaring administrator.

— A parent from North Princeton

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Notes from editor:

I find the stories deeply troubling and heart-wrenching. Reading about the mistreatment and injustice inflicted upon these students almost brought me to tears. No student should have to endure such maltreatment and unfairness. These students simply wanted to pursue their passion for a subject they love, yet their pursuit was met with cruel attacks. It begs the question, what was the purpose of such treatment?