California approves new math guidelines that encourage 'teaching toward social justice'

California will officially adopt a new "equity" and "social justice" based mathematics framework for its K-12 schools after a vote from the State Board of Education on Wednesday.

After multiple revisions and years of development, the board unanimously passed the 2023 Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools which seeks to renew the state’s "commitment to ensuring equity and excellence in math learning for all students."

"This framework provides strategies to challenge, engage, and support all students in deep and relevant math learning by building on successful approaches used in nations that produce high and equitable achievement in math," State Board President Linda Darling-Hammond said in a statement. 

She added, "It also draws on the experiences of educators who have worked for a decade to develop successful strategies for teaching California’s rigorous standards, carrying those lessons to others across the state. This framework provides teachers and schools with a path to greater excellence with greater equity."

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The 1000-page document, which has seen three revisions and two public hearings, aims to "structure the teaching of the state’s math standards around ‘big ideas’ that integrate rather than isolate math concepts," "allow students to ‘see themselves’ in curriculum and in math-related careers by making math instruction culturally relevant and empowering" and "instill confidence in learners by dispelling myths about who can and cannot learn math."

"Cultural and personal relevance is important for learning and also for creating mathematical communities that reflect California’s diversity. Educators can learn to notice, utilize, and value students’ identities, assets, and cultural resources to support learning for all students. Additionally, because culture and language can be intertwined, attending to cultural relevance may also enable teachers to attend to linguistic diversity – a key feature of California and relevant to the teaching and learning of mathematics," the document reads.

The framework also includes a section on integrating "social justice" into lessons to "empower" students.

"Teaching toward social justice urges educators to empower learners with tools to examine inequities and address important issues in their lives and communities through mathematics," the document explains.

It adds, "Mathematics educators committed to social justice work provide curricular examples that equip students with a toolkit and mindset to identify and combat inequities with mathematics."

An effort to reframe mathematics in California schools was reported by Fox News in April 2021 and included an "Equitable Math" toolkit that sought to dismantle objectivity in the concept.

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"The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much less so," a document for the "Equitable Math" toolkit read. "Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuate objectivity as well as fear of open conflict."

At the time, the reforming of mathematics received intense backlash. In December 2021, hundreds of science and math professors signed a letter of "open concern" regarding the change.

"Subjecting the children of our largest state to such an experiment is the height of irresponsibility," the letter said.

GOP lawmakers in California also voiced their displeasure at the new framework in their own letter that same year.

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"Imposing a one-size-fits-all model on the students of California will instead stifle creativity, free thinking, and innovation," the lawmakers wrote.

The State Board of Education initially postponed implementation of the new framework in 2021.