Palo Alto ‘math wars’ reflect a raging nationwide debate
“Now I’m stuck in seventh-grade math, and it’s so boring,” said Aditya, who the Chronicle is identifying by first name only because he’s a minor. “I strongly dislike the system.”
His concerns echo those of one side of a divisive debate raging in the Palo Alto Unified School District over mathematics education, which has culminated in a contentious school board race for two termed-out seats.
While next five-person board will have to address a substantial budget deficit, mathematics has become a defining issue for at least two candidates, one of whom sued the district after his son was prevented from taking a more advanced course the lawsuit argued he was qualified for.
The debates have centered on three main issues: whether the district is making it too difficult to skip a grade in math, if the district should track kids into separate math classes based on performance, and whether it should offer advanced classes beyond AP Calculus.
At the core of the current debate is whether a new math framework that Palo Alto implemented in 2020 is working, part of a wider dispute in many Bay Area districts over how to balance equity and excellence. The University of California came under increasing national scrutiny over whether to bring back SAT and ACT scoresin admissions after a report about UC studentsstruggling with basic math.
Palo Alto eliminated middle school math tracking in 2020 with the purpose of ensuring all students would take algebra by eighth grade, which research has showncan improve math achievement. To do so, it compressed four years of math into three. It got rid of accelerated math courses in middle school, though students are permitted to skip a grade of math if they pass an annual test in middle school, a hurdle that’s sparked pushback.
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2009 (!) University of Wisconsin-Madison Placement Office study of “reform vs traditional math” outcomes came to mind when reading Corrinne Hess’s 7 July 2026 article: “Fewer than half of Wisconsin students are proficient at math“.
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