A high-ranking official with the Tennessee Department of Education — who is new to the job and previously worked in California — has a resume that includes pushing for math equity.
This, according to Breitbart.com.
Math Equity is the concept that working to answer a question correctly constitutes racism and white supremacy.
This woman, Rachael Maves, reportedly began working for the Tennessee Department of Education in September. Maves previously served as deputy superintendent for instruction and measurement for the California Department of Education.
“During her time in California, Maves promoted that state’s controversial revision of its mathematics framework, one that seeks to train K-12 math teachers that ‘white supremacy culture infiltrates math classrooms in everyday teacher actions,’” Breitbart reported.
“The San Francisco Chronicle reported in May, Maves supported the California department’s recommendation to push Algebra 1 out of middle school and delay access to that course until high school, which would eliminate the tracking of students into accelerated math programs in middle school.”
Officials within the State of Virginia government announced this year that they would eliminate all accelerated math courses in the state’s public schools before the 11th grade. This, ostensibly as part of an “equity” plan to make math classes easier for all races.
In August, Deborah Ball, a mathematics professor at the University of Michigan, said that the discipline inflicts racism against black and Latino students.
“It’s difficult to figure out how to surface and unpack the ways that mathematics, for example, is a harbor for whiteness,” Ball said at the time.
In July, Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) introduced a bill that he said will increase diversity in Advanced Placement (AP) and Gifted and Talented Elementary (GT) classes.
Cohen also said his bill would use Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) funding to create equity offices in state departments of education to increase diversity in AP and GT programs.
Cohen called his bill the Diversity Advancements in Accelerated Academic Programs Act.
– – –
Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Rachael Maves” by Rachael Maves.
