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 Staying on the Path Toward College Interactive Case: Nancy Brown, Paulo’s Math Teacher     

“Lately, I am concerned about Paulo. I see him spending time with some really questionable kids, and I’m worried about his math and his goals. I told him that he’s got a lot of potential, but that he’s not working hard enough.”


Nancy Brown had been teaching math for 9 years. During her first years teaching at the high school, she had witnessed several students, especially low-income, ethnically diverse, and immigrant boys, leave school and its career opportunities too early. So she switched to a sixth-grade math classroom at Bay Vista Middle School a few years ago, hoping to help get youth in the community on the right track to math earlier in their school careers while they were still on “the good path.” Bay Vista is a primarily Latino, low-income school with high numbers of English Language Learners whose primary language is Spanish. Families mostly come from Mexico to work in the fields, picking strawberries and lettuce, and in the packing plants.

“I see it as my job not only to teach mathematics but to also try to encourage the dreams and goals of Latino children and their families. Lately, I am concerned about Paulo. I see him spending time with some really questionable kids, and I’m worried about his math and his goals. I had to recommend him for the low-level sixth-grade math class. This upsets me because I see that he comes to school regularly, and he’s curious and pays attention in class. I told him that he’s got a lot of potential, but that he’s not working hard enough. He appears to spend a lot of time entertaining himself with video games.

“It seems he has an older friend at home who helps him with math, but when he’s on his own, he just can’t figure it out. So now I know he’s trying, but there’s only so much I can do. There are standardized benchmarks of achievement that determine eligibility for college-prep classes in high school like algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2, and if you’re in low-level math in sixth grade, it’s really hard to place into a higher level afterwards and pass algebra by ninth grade. I just can’t put him in these classes without him being prepared.

“I see so many times that too many of our Latino students get placed in low-level math ability groups early on that sends these students toward these remedial tracks. I want to work to untrack these youths, but they need support—as well as the skills—to know they can succeed. In Paulo’s case, he hasn’t been doing his work and has made some new friends who don’t seem to value school. It’s really affected his grades.”

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image of Paulo, sixth grader image of Paulo's parents image of Paulo;s math teacher
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Paulo, sixth grader
Paulo’s parents Math teacher Up Next -> College student and family friend Community college outreach program director Supporting data Piecing it all together

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Published by Harvard Family Research Project