Across Bay Area school districts, efforts to eliminate honors and accelerated classes in the name of "equity" are raising concerns about declining academic standards and reduced opportunities for high-achieving students.
Known as “detracking” or “de-laning,” the approach combines students of different ability levels in the same classroom.
Supporters argue it reduces stigma and improves outcomes for disadvantaged students, but critics warn that eliminating advanced coursework can hold students back rather than raise achievement for everyone.
This issue comes as California continues to struggle academically: recent state testing data shows that only 49.2% of students met or exceeded grade-level standards in English and 38.3% in Math.
San Francisco Unified provides a cautionary example. After eliminating advanced math pathways in 2014–15, including the option to take Algebra 1 in eighth grade, student participation in Advanced Placement math courses fell 15%, according to a 2023 Stanford study. Researchers found that students’ progress through mathematics was delayed, leaving fewer able to reach calculus before graduating.
As Stanford professor Thomas Dee observed, the reforms appeared to be “lowering the ceiling” rather than raising the floor. The district has since reversed course, restoring the option for eighth-graders to take algebra.
The central challenge for schools is to help struggling students succeed without limiting the progress of those ready for greater challenges.
Educators should be raising achievement and expanding opportunity... not lowering expectations or removing pathways to academic excellence.