An overhaul of California’s math instruction guide has sparked a heated debate about whether data science should be part of K-12 education. Constanza Hevia H. – Washington Post – Getty Images
The three-year battle over California’s new mathematics framework has produced disaster and confusion on all sides. As the battle raged on op-ed pages and on X (formerly known as Twitter), the fog of war obscured the inevitable truth. It’s that the data revolution is coming, and our kids aren’t ready for it.
From ChatGPT to personal finances, almost every decision we make in our daily lives is now dominated by data. 8 out of 10 of his fastest growing careers this year are related to data science. Ten years from now, it will be difficult to find a job that suits you. do not have Data driven.
We need to teach K-12 students basic data literacy to prepare them for this new reality. We can all understand this, but somehow current politics has turned this idea into a heated debate.
New critics of data science instruction seem to have three common objections. Their first argument is that data science programs somehow “water down” the mathematics. That’s certainly possible, especially if school districts treat data-related classes as a form of remediation, but it shouldn’t be. Data science is an extremely challenging subject that combines traditional mathematics, statistics, computer programming, and complex datasets. In many ways, it requires critical thinking, creativity, and a nuanced understanding of the context in which data is generated, and therefore requires more students.
The second objection is that it is somehow illegal to study data science in high school because students do not yet have the math skills needed to be a professional data scientist. This is a strange argument. Are high school students unable to learn anything about physics just because they don’t understand calculus? If you don’t know the rules of iambic pentameter, can you appreciate the beauty of Shakespeare’s sonnets?
A third argument is that data science classes eliminate some of the calculus and other mathematics required for college STEM degrees. This is an important concern, but it presupposes that every part of today’s curriculum is absolutely essential to that path. Do we really think it’s true? Having spent many nights at the kitchen table helping my kids with their homework, I doubt that’s the case. And we (parents) shouldn’t ignore over 130 university specialties, such as mathematics and engineering, that require a foundation in data and statistics as the world changes.
We adults can stop and wander, but young people are not waiting for us to understand this. In universities, students are moving toward data science courses at an alarming rate. The number of undergraduate degree programs in data science is exploding nationally and in every state. It is a rapidly growing major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Not to be outdone, the University of California, Berkeley recently launched an entire university dedicated to the subject. Our university, the University of Chicago, has hired 25 data science faculty to meet student demand.
Sixteen other states have already officially launched or recommended data science in K-12. Some are creating year-round courses, while others are completely redesigning math pathways. Leading STEM high schools across the country teach students the UC Berkeley Data8 program, one of the best college data science courses in the country. Just recently, a group of AP Statistics teachers organized a national data science challenge in which more than 5,000 students participated.
Without leadership from policymakers and educators, this revolution will still occur, but its benefits will be distributed disproportionately to students who already benefit. Wealthy parents and employees of technology companies teach their children these skills through summer and after-school programs. Is this what we want? Or do you want to ensure that every child has at least a basic level of data literacy?
If all of this applies to you, and you believe that modern K-12 education requires at least some data science instruction, you can help us take action. Ask your local schools to incorporate data across K-12 subjects. Ask your teachers to incorporate modern data tools into their teaching methods. Then ask school leaders to offer data-focused math courses and support educators with the right resources to do so.
Let’s put down our weapons in this math war and start fighting again for the future of our children.
Stephen Levitt is an economist, founder of the Radical Innovation Center for Social Change (RISC) at the University of Chicago, and author of the following books: Freakonomics.
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