President Obama, in his speech today (right now)

Can someone tell me if this includes California? I understand many districts have split second year algebra into two courses. There are now courses for Algebra I, Algebra II, Algebra IIa, and Algebra IIb. Since there still exists a one-year version, I’m curious if it counted as a lowered standard. I’m also curious which states did lower their standards, and how.

Back when I was in high school, geometry was the last math course required for graduation. That was as high as the SAT tested. Students could take Algebra II and fail with no consequence. The justification for splitting Algebra II into two courses seems justified, then, as more students will take (and presumably understand) more math. I don’t know what the failure rates were for Algebra II before the split, so some of the implied process for the change is conjecture.

My grandfather married a math teacher. My father married a math teacher. In August, I will marry a math teacher. You will find no member of the Nutjob family that doesn’t believe math is the single most important subject.