A proposal to remove accelerated classes to close academic achievement gaps and reduce student stress is moving through several Bay Area school districts, setting up a curriculum fight in many local school board races in November’s election.
It comes as California students continue to struggle to recoup pandemic learning loss compared to peers in other states, especially among low-income and minority students.
State testing data released earlier this week revealed more than half of California’s 5.8 million K-12 students read below grade level, with 49.2% meeting or exceeding grade-level standards in English. The number of socioeconomically disadvantaged students who met or exceeded grade-level standards was 38.8%.
Some Bay Area school districts have proposed removing accelerated classes in a bid to close persistent academic achievement gaps.
Palo Alto Unified School District’s school board voted in January 2025 to merge the freshman biology and biology honors courses, beginning in the 2026-27 school year.
The move, referred to as “de-laning” or “detracking,” is the practice of merging multiple academic tracks — like remedial, regular and honors classes — into a single classroom.
Supporters of the move argue that creating a single academic course reduces stigma around lower-track classes, which are often disproportionately filled with lower-income students and minority students.
Supporters also say merging courses promotes equity by ensuring all students have access to the same foundational coursework and higher expectations.
“Our honors classes look very different than our college prep-level classes. And as educators, this is a deep concern that we all share,” said Palo Alto High School biology teacher Elizabeth Brimhall, at the January 2025 board meeting. “We want our classes at all levels to represent the diversity of our schools and our student bodies.”
But critics argue it’s a “one-size-fits-none” approach that holds high-achieving students back. And opponents say the move doesn’t promote equity, as wealthier families will hire tutors or leave public schools for private ones in search of additional academic opportunities for their children.
“We’ve already seen the effect in Palo Alto; if you de-lane … people go to private school and that takes dollars out of the public school system,” said John Craig, who is running for Palo Alto Unified’s school board this November.
Craig, an engineer, is one of three candidates for two open seats on the district’s school board. He is running against tech executive Avery Wang and district educator Linda Henigin. No incumbents are on the ballot.
Craig and Wang are critical of the district’s decision to get rid of honors courses and have committed to maintaining those class options for students.
Craig said the district should set students up for success and challenge them academically rather than lumping everyone in together, while Wang said dismantling pathways for students who want to accelerate their learning undermines Silicon Valley’s tradition of innovation and shortchanges the future STEM workforce.
In her candidate statement, Henigin said she supports students’ desire to follow their interests through advanced placement and honors coursework. She told the Palo Alto Daily Post that while she doesn’t want to cap students’ potential, she generally sides with de-laning. Henigin did not respond to a request for comment from this news organization.
Craig and Wang are part of a larger group of school board candidates across the Bay Area running on the promise to push back against the trend in the region’s school districts — including in Oakland Unified, Fremont Union, Morgan Hill Unified, San Francisco Unified and Los Gatos-Saratoga Unified.
The San Francisco Unified School District was one of the first Bay Area school districts to adopt the trend when it eliminated advanced middle and high school math classes in 2014-15, including the option for advanced students to take Algebra 1 in 8th grade — traditionally a 9th-grade course.
But a 2023 Stanford study found the move had the opposite of its intended effect — San Francisco Unified students’ participation in AP math courses dropped 15% immediately after the policy was implemented and equity gaps persisted.
Thomas Dee, one of the three Stanford professors who authored the study, said that the move delayed students’ math progression and resulted in fewer students being able to take calculus while in high school.
“San Francisco’s reforms could be thought of not so much as in raising the floor, but lowering the ceiling,” Dee said.
The district reversed course earlier this year after 81% of San Francisco voters backed a proposition urging it to restore algebra. For the first time in over a decade, all San Francisco Unified eighth-graders can elect to take algebra this year.
Dee said algebra is often the “flashpoint” for conversations around de-laning, because it is one of the most frequently failed classes and is a critical pathway to college preparation and science, technology and engineering careers.
Palo Alto Unified’s neighboring district, Sequoia Union High School District, removed 9th-grade honors courses in 2023 in response to poor academic performance among socioeconomically disadvantaged students, particularly in algebra.
But Sequoia Union High School District’s move differed from San Francisco’s controversial strategy in a key way, Dee said. The district removed a lower, remedial algebra course and placed those students in a regular algebra course. And it gave teachers extra support on how to manage a combined-skills classroom.
“What they found was actually encouraging,” Dee said. “The lower-performing students thrived in those classes.”
A district report analyzing the change found that merging students increased the number of students who later enrolled in advanced courses and performance among socioeconomically disadvantaged students improved significantly.
The district later blended English language arts and science classes by eliminating remedial courses and merging introductory, advanced and grade-level courses, sparking parent protest.
Alon Shiran, a parent of three students in the district and a candidate running for one of two open seats on the Sequoia Union school board, argues de-laning academic classes goes against a commitment to ensuring each student reaches their full potential.
“With eliminating these classes, what the district is hoping to achieve is to close the achievement gaps,” Shiran said. “But in reality, what happens is you cap opportunity for kids. And those who have the means go to private school, which is the exact opposite of what we’re trying to achieve with closing opportunity gaps.”
Stanford professor Dee said inequality in the classroom and quality of teachers is a “real and legitimate concern.” But he encouraged school districts to focus on ways to raise the floor for students who have been historically overlooked academically while also ensuring all students have opportunities to challenge themselves.
“I would just remember the lesson from San Francisco,” Dee said. “Which is, we almost certainly want to avoid de-tracking efforts that lower the ceiling rather than raise the floor.”