Palo Alto and Gunn High School education councils have decided to not offer Multivariable Calculus as a PAUSD high school course next year. Instead, both groups supported offering a new math elective –– Introduction to Proofs Honors, a decision that has spurred new controversy in the district.

In December 2025, the Palo Alto Board of Education unanimously approved two new advanced math courses: Multivariable Calculus and Introduction to Proofs Honors. The courses were designed to be part of the district’s most advanced math lane, which includes students who pass a math placement test to skip over some math classes.

According to the district’s course adoption process, teachers may propose new courses, which are reviewed by teacher committees, department teams and district staff before being sent to the Board of Education for approval.

Once approved, courses become eligible for site consideration. However, final inclusion in school course catalogs is determined by the site principal in collaboration with teachers and guidance staff. Since MVC is not a graduation requirement, individual schools ultimately decide whether to offer the course.

Senior Xander Yap, who currently takes MVC outside of school at De Anza College, said the decision to not offer MVC at Paly contradicts the purpose of education.

“Learning is important, and when you don’t offer a class because you’re worried about something tangential to school, I feel like it defeats the point of school because you’re taking away opportunities for kids to learn,” Yap said. “Isn’t that the point of school?”

A Paly parent, who agreed to be interviewed only if her name wasn’t included due to potential backlash, said she felt frustrated at the decision to not offer MVC as a high school course.  

“I think it is the wrong decision, as there are apparently kids who want to study it and will study it using other methods,” the parent said. “Paly has the teacher and the resources to offer it. Why do they make it so hard for students to learn? It’s just against all the principles about advocating for students’ learning.”  

Currently, Paly students may take MVC at Foothill College or De Anza College. However, students who are dual-enrolled said the online and after-school experience is often inconvenient.

“Almost everyone arrives late because it takes longer to get home than the time we have (after) the end of our school,” Yap said. “The timing is also really awkward because it interferes with all of the things that I’d want to do after school.”

Yap said he also felt underwhelmed by his off-campus experience compared to his honors math classes at Paly.

“While the honors track at Paly is very difficult, I enjoyed it because I enjoy math, like most of the people in the honors track,” Yap said. “And when I went from the honors track – where we learned a lot of math very quickly and you had to put effort into it – into this online class that’s slow, incredibly inconvenient and online, I just feel like I’ve learned so much less this year. And not only do I feel unprepared for college, but I also just feel a little bit sad about not being able to experience the sort of learning I wanted to.”

The parent said pursuing advanced math in high school is crucial for the development of the next generation of students interested in STEM. 

“Think about the excellence of the U.S. youth to be competitive in the future,” the parent said. “Math is going to be so important in this high-tech era. And if students are interested in STEM, we should encourage them and provide the classes for them to learn, so they can go for more advanced math in college or can save their time to learn something they’re interested in in college.”

But Geometry and Analysis Honors teacher Alexander Dade, who is collaborating with Gunn to create the curriculum for the Introduction to Proofs Honors course, said the new class is intended to address the growing demand for advanced math offerings.

“The Intro to Proofs course is meant not as a catchall solution, but as a solution of sorts to the demand for higher level math courses without creating more pressure on students to accelerate further and further than they necessarily need to,” Dade said.

Senior Kishor Rajmohan thinks the Introduction to Proofs course is the right way to go.

“The way I think about classes at a high school is they should either be to explore and discover or they should be some kind of practical, pragmatic kind of content-based class,” Rajmohan said. “(Introduction to Proofs) is very beneficial and better than MVC. From my experiences, (in MVC), you’re just learning theorems, doing problems and going through the process. But in Intro to Proofs, if it’s done right, it can really teach you how to think differently about math — and about the world — and about coming up with questions and trying to find the answers to them in a rigorous way.”

Although the education councils declined to offer MVC as an official high school course — meaning it will not appear in course catalogs or count for PAUSD credit — Dade said Paly is still considering hosting MVC on campus through Foothill College.

“Currently, what we’re looking at is something where Foothill would have a professor on our campus, potentially during school hours,” Dade said. “It would still be a Foothill course that would not formally be a Paly course, but it would be MVC offered on campus.”

Dade said this option is a solid middle ground.

“Having MVC available on campus through Foothill is a good compromise,” Dade said. “There are always going to be students that want to do more, but I think a lot of that is also just pressure from the culture of the school and the idea of wanting to do as much as possible to look the best that you can on college apps.”

According to a Palo Alto Online article, the education councils voted against offering MVC as a PAUSD high school course due to the fact that “changing the core math sequence could disadvantage many Palo Alto students during the admissions process.”

However, the parent said she believes this argument is flawed and that taking MVC would not serve as the most important factor for college admissions. 

“In my view, having this class or not will have a very negligible effect on college admissions,” the parent said. “If someone is very good at something, it will also disadvantage other people. We can’t just stop them from developing excellence in order to make everybody feel they are the same. I don’t think that’s fair. “

Although not fully opposed to MVC, Dade did have concerns about offering it as a PAUSD course.

“While I do appreciate and understand and want to accommodate students that want to push forward, I don’t think it’s something that is based in genuine love of math as much as wanting more credit,” Dade said. “It is a course that gets you credit, and that is up next after BC, and that’s kind of it. It’s not particularly interesting; it’s not very novel; it’s not that practical in most fields, and even in higher level math classes in college, it never really came up.”

And Rajmohan, a student who has finished MVC, said students passionate about math have other ways to demonstrate interest.

“If you want to show your passion about math, I think taking it online and getting that community college credit is sufficient,” Rajmohan said. “And if you’re really passionate about math, there are a lot of things other than getting course credit to show that you actually care about exploring and learning the subject and how you can become a better mathematician.”

Some students, however, have expressed concern that offering MVC on campus would intensify academic pressure. A sophomore in advanced math who agreed to be interviewed only if their name wasn’t included due to privacy concerns, said she would feel compelled to enroll.

“(If they offer MVC at Paly), I’ll have to take it because everyone else will take it,” the sophomore said. “And that won’t be fun because it’s really hard.” 

The sophomore said she feels parental expectations would play a significant role.

“If MVC exists, my parents will pressure me into taking it because I can’t be less than everyone else,” the sophomore said. “And if I take MVC, I’m going to get a B. And a B is bad.”

Dade said Introduction to Proofs is designed to avoid this type of pressure while still serving students deeply interested in math. 

“This is an opportunity that very few districts have, that are in my opinion, far more interesting than multivariable calculus,” Dade said. “The proofs course is designed to help students build skills that are actually very useful in higher level math, specifically kids who want to major in math, without creating artificial pressure for students to accelerate any more than they want to.”

Because of this, Rajmohan said he welcomes the new course.

“This is an amazing auxiliary course to take that will help you with pretty much any field and any endeavor,” Rajmohan said. “It gives you that kind of intuition I was talking about, and it’s a very practical course. Learning the process of proofs is a great thing to know, and to be able to think that way is very useful. I think it’s a great addition to the curriculum.” 

Ultimately, Dade said he encourages students to keep an open mind.

“I truly do believe it’s a really cool opportunity,” Dade said. “Paly is as special as it is because of the cool opportunities it has. And I think this is one that’s truly unique. I think a lot of people should give it a chance.”