Stanford's Fuzzy Math & Palo Alto Screening

Good morning all,

I am excited to announce that we have secured the Aquarius Theater in downtown Palo Alto for the next screening of “Killing America.” The event will take place on Wednesday, March 27 from 7 to 9 PM. There are only 75 seats and already more than 50% have been sold or reserved — if you live in Palo Alto or nearby, you may want to jump on it quick and purchase your tickets here. We will have another lively Q&A afterward.

The timing could not be more perfect. The schools in Palo Alto have been quietly assaulting merit just like the schools featured in “Killing America” — however in a different way.

A few years ago, parents led by Avery Wang sued the Palo Alto Unified School District over its method of placing students in math classes. The district was found guilty of forcing students who had completed high level math classes — which were UC-approved equivalent — in middle school to repeat them in 9th grade. Put another way, the district did not allow these students to proceed at their own rigorous pace and instead punished them for their success.

In my day, kids were held back because they did not meet the standards and many benefitted from that extra year of reinforcement and found success later on. In today’s upside world, kids are essentially held back for being too successful.

Upon being found guilty, the district blamed their flawed website for these errors. Laugh or cry.

To read more on this case, click here.

It gets worse.

Yesterday, The Washington Free Beacon exposed another fraud on Stanford Univeristy’s campus.

They reported that an “anonymous complaint, backed by a California-based group of math-and-science focused professionals, alleges that Professor Jo Boaler—the most prominent influence on California’s K-12 math framework that nudges schools away from accelerated math pathways—has in 52 instances misrepresented supporting research she has cited in her own work in order to support her conclusions.”

I immediately posted my thoughts to X (Twitter) and it went viral (over 2M views), including this repost by Bill Ackman who played a crucial role in the Harvard scandal where Claudine Gay failed to apply the same standards to antisemitism as she has to other forms of hate.

Here is the link to my original post which also received comment from Elon Musk (“Wow”) and below is what I posted in full:

This Stanford professor, Jo Boaler, has led an unprecedented and devastating assault on mathematics standards in the name of equity in California. Her efforts contributed to the removal of Algebra 1 from 8th grade and helped introduce racialized math, among other injustices. Again, all done in the name of racial equity. If robbing countless Californian kids of their right to a quality education is not a crime, then I don't know what it is. "The anonymous complaint, backed by a California-based group of math-and-science focused professionals, alleges that Professor Jo Boaler—the most prominent influence on California’s K-12 math framework that nudges schools away from accelerated math pathways—has in 52 instances misrepresented supporting research she has cited in her own work in order to support her conclusions. These include the notions that taking timed tests causes math anxiety, mixing students of different academic levels boosts achievement, and students have been found to perform better when teachers don’t grade their work. This pattern of ‘citation misrepresentation,’ the complaint alleges, violates Stanford’s standards of professional conduct for faculty, showing a disregard for accuracy, and may violate the university's research integrity rules."

And:

"Boaler runs a center out of Stanford called Youcubed, which produces data science courses promoted in the California math framework and offers consulting services. Records from one California public school district showed she charged $5,000 per hour in fees. She has also cultivated a high profile in educational and progressive circles. After she drew negative press for the initial drafts of the equity-focused California math framework that she led, she sought help from Democratic megadonor Laurene Powell Jobs to advocate for the guidelines to California governor Gavin Newsom, according to emails."

In a follow up post, I added:

For me, this is personal. One of my kids, 15, took geometry in 8th grade. The other, 13, is currently taking 8th grade algebra 1. If Jo Boaler had her way, they’d be set back two and one year(s) respectively. And for what? One of their grandparents grew up in segregation, one immigrated here, another was first born in USA to Holocaust survivors. Why would she attempt to hinder our family’s upward mobility?

Here is the article in full.

That is why I’m excited to bring “Killing America” to Palo Alto for a much needed conversation on how inept “educators” in positions of power are undermining our kids. It is also very telling that Boaler does not hail from Stanford’s mathematics program but its School of Education.

Lastly, we have several screenings coming up — we just confirmed Chicago for April 21st and we are working on an all-star panel that will include Pastor Corey Brooks. If you have not read his piece in Tablet Magazine, “America Works, DEI Doesn’t,” you must.

Will send more updates re screenings as soon as they are confirmed.

Also, I appreciated the debate over my last Substack regarding the Derek Chauvin controversy. Lost 11 paying subscribers but that is their choice. We may not alway agree but I respect the counterarguments that were presented.

All my best,

Eli