Dive Brief:
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San Francisco Unified School District and Cambridge Public Schools in Massachusetts are among school districts that have reversed course on pushing algebra to high school rather than allowing students to take the subject in middle school.
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The initial decisions to shift the class were made so that students would be well-grounded in the basics needed for algebra and upper-level math, but those decisions were met with pushback from parents.
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For Kevin Dykema, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, encouraging students to start algebra earlier is not necessarily the best path. “When we push algebra, it really becomes a race rather than about understanding,” he said. “And mathematics should not be merely memorizing a set of procedures. It needs to be understanding the concepts.”
Dive Insight:
In San Francisco, students will once again be able to take Algebra I in 8th grade beginning in fall 2024. The district’s initial decision in 2014 to hold the course until 9th grade intended to address racial gaps, but researchers at Stanford found those gaps remained after the change. Cambridge Public Schools made its 2017 decision for similar reasons, but plans to reintroduce Algebra I to 8th grade math over the next few years, GBH reports.
Dykema is a proponent of making sure students have time to strengthen their core math skills before moving forward in the subject. That’s one reason he suggests that keeping algebra at the high school level provides more opportunity for all students. In short, he said, more time allocated to mathematical basics may help decrease student struggling.
“Too often, when we put algebra in the 8th grade, we skip over content in the 6th and 7th grade,” Dykema said. “So students start to gloss over key concepts. For many, that leads to frustration later, because they didn’t have the foundational concepts that many teachers covered for their peers.”
Some families believe it’s crucial to have certain courses, such as AP Calculus, on their child’s high school transcripts for college applications. Dykema, however, is focused on grounding students in the subject — and even seeding an interest in mathematics. By rushing, he said, students may still earn the credit — but they could also develop an eventual distaste for mathematics because they never had the chance to steep themselves in the work and discover how math can apply to their everyday lives.
“We need to make sure students are successful no matter when they’re taking this class for algebra,” Dykema said. “It’s about increasing opportunities for all students and moving math understanding rather than using it for rising through to the next course.”
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