Dive Brief:
- A variety of strategies helped Chicago Public Schools, Florida's Miami-Dade County Public Schools and the Los Angeles Unified School District improve algebra completion, and a recent case study from the National Math Improvement Project highlights the key takeaways for other districts nationwide.
- Tactics incorporated by the three districts included expanding access to algebra in middle school, increasing credentialed teachers in the subject, improving Algebra I curriculum, and using early acceleration and high-dosage tutoring programs to close content gaps.
- Efforts to improve algebra access and achievement come as the most recent round of results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed math scores continuing to decline in the U.S. The average score dropped 3 points for 4th graders and 8 points for 8th graders between 2019 and 2024.
Dive Insight:
According to a Gates Foundation briefing on the nonprofit’s K-12 math investments, Algebra I is a strong predictor of long-term success. Students who pass Algebra I by the end of 9th grade are twice as likely to graduate high school and more likely to persist through college and earn a degree.
Chicago Public Schools serves more than 325,000 students across 634 schools, according to the National Math Improvement Project report. Chicago’s efforts were concentrated on increasing the number of credentialed algebra teachers at the middle school level. In fall 2020, the district also launched virtual Algebra Expanded Access Hubs, which offer synchronously taught courses by algebra-credentialed teachers for middle schools without an on-site Algebra I teacher.
According to the report, 100% of Chicago Public Schools students who passed Algebra I during their 8th grade year in 2023-24 are also passing their next-level math class during the current school year, whether that be geometry or an algebra enrichment course.
In its algebra curriculum, Chicago also aimed to improve students’ perception of math by connecting it to real-world problems. According to the report, this approach led to 81.3% of students finding the lessons relevant to them, their life and their interests, and 92% were glad they took the class.
Miami-Dade Public County Schools is three years into its five-year strategic plan, and the district is closely monitoring students' data to assess long-term impact, the report said.
Serving more than 337,000 students across 499 schools, the district has been expanding accelerated learning into elementary grades and providing multiple pathways to Algebra I, like high-dosage tutoring and summer learning.
According to the study, Miami-Dade schools have shown notable improvement in middle school acceleration proficiency — meaning the rate of eligible 7th and 8th graders who score a level 3 or higher on the statewide end-of-course assessment for Algebra I. For the most recent school year, the district’s data shows a 75% proficiency rate, up 15% over the 2020-21 academic year.
At Los Angeles Unified School District, which serves more than 557,000 pre-K-12 students in 1,543 schools, students traditionally followed a grade-level instructional pathway to Algebra I, meaning they’d take it in 9th grade.
The state requires students to complete at least three years of math in high school with a letter grade of C or higher to meet the A-G requirements to enter the state college system. This requirement, the report found, left little wiggle room for students who faced challenges or had to repeat Algebra I.
To ensure more students had opportunities to take advanced math coursework, the secondary instruction team worked with schools to map various math course pathways for students. Based on the most common routes and considerations for vertical integration, the district offered professional learning to middle school teachers and leaders to build expertise in math content aligned to those pathways.
Between the 2018-2019 and 2023-2024 academic years, 92.4% of Algebra I students in the middle grades passed the course on average, the study found. Starting in summer 2025, the district plans to continue this success by offering rising 8th graders an opportunity to take a pre-algebra course that will build foundational skills needed to take Algebra I a year ahead of schedule.
The report suggests that other school districts trying to make math more equitable and accessible focus on factors like opportunity, readiness, access and mindset when assessing math courses.
