Students and trustees press Placer Union on math instruction; ALEKS use questioned, AI tutor trial proposed
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Sign Up Free
Summary
Student voice meetings across campuses criticized reliance on the ALEKS online learning platform and asked for more in-person instruction and hands-on learning. Trustee Lake proposed a trial of an AI math tutor for a limited group of teachers.
Students from multiple Placer Union High School District campuses told the board they do not want the ALEKS online system used as the primary method of teaching math and asked for more in-person, hands-on lessons and opportunities to collaborate with peers.
A Forest Hill student board member told trustees the student voice meeting concluded “students would not use the online ALEKS math course as the main way that math is taught” and called for more classroom instruction and visual, hands-on units to help students grasp concepts. A Colfax student delegate said students preferred paper tests and teacher-created materials, and noted that “computers won’t accept different versions of answers, so it makes it really hard to tell if you actually got it wrong.”
Trustee Lake and others framed the comments as part of a larger district conversation about math instruction. Lake said she supports piloting an AI tutoring program for mathematics and proposed recruiting about 10 interested teachers for a trial; she also described Khan Academy’s AI tutor as one option to test and said district Chromebooks can run the software. The board did not adopt a formal policy at the meeting but directed further exploration of tutoring pilots and continued engagement with teachers and students.
Trustees and student leaders said they would continue collecting classroom-level feedback, and the grading practices ad hoc committee reported it is drafting a grading policy to bring back to the board for consideration.