Paved with Good Intentions
Even the best-intentioned policies can go off the rails if they don't build the capacity for success. Witness the recent finding from Brookings Institution scholar Tom Loveless that over 100,000 eighth graders currently enrolled in algebra class lack basic arithmetic skills. This is bad news for California, which plans to mandate algebra for all eighth graders. Loveless attributes the rise in innumeracy among algebra students to recent efforts to enroll many more students in advanced math.
Don't get me wrong. I believe many more American students should master algebra by the end of eighth grade. But I also believe that universal algebra policies depend on a host of other supporting reforms. Nancy Flanagan reminds us that teachers must have a strong voice in those reforms:
Any major curricular overhaul...like universal 8th grade algebra, takes time for re-tooling. It's not about new curriculum materials-it's about preparing the students and teaching math differently from the start. And who should be at the table as math standards, benchmarks and teaching strategies are gutted and overhauled, sharing the benefits of their experience? Math teachers.
The problems Loveless reveals in his study should be familiar to us by now: The students struggling in algebra are more likely than their peers to be poor and to have inexperienced teachers. Universal algebra policies should also address the maldistribution of teachers and strengthen the capacity of teachers serving low-income students. (To see what's possible, take a look at Hamilton County Public Schools in Tennessee.)
So, high expectations alone won't cut it. There are fortunately many examples of public schools and districts that that combine high expectations with strong support for struggling students. The result: low-income students perform much better in math--even in advanced courses.
SIGN UP
Visionaries
Click here to browse dozens of Public School Insights interviews with extraordinary education advocates, including:
- 2013 Digital Principal Ryan Imbriale
- Best Selling Author Dan Ariely
- Family Engagement Expert Dr. Maria C. Paredes
The views expressed in this website's interviews do not necessarily represent those of the Learning First Alliance or its members.
New Stories
Featured Story
Excellence is the Standard
At Pierce County High School in rural southeast Georgia, the graduation rate has gone up 31% in seven years. Teachers describe their collaboration as the unifying factor that drives the school’s improvement. Learn more...
School/District Characteristics
Hot Topics
Blog Roll
Members' Blogs
- Transforming Learning
- The EDifier
- School Board News Today
- Legal Clips
- Learning Forward’s PD Watch
- NAESP's Principals' Office
- NASSP's Principal's Policy Blog
- The Principal Difference
- ASCA Scene
- PDK Blog
- Always Something
- NSPRA: Social School Public Relations
- AACTE's President's Perspective
- AASA's The Leading Edge
- AASA Connects (formerly AASA's School Street)
- NEA Today
- Angles on Education
- Lily's Blackboard
- PTA's One Voice
- ISTE Connects
What Else We're Reading
- Advancing the Teaching Profession
- Edwize
- The Answer Sheet
- Edutopia's Blogs
- Politics K-12
- U.S. Department of Education Blog
- John Wilson Unleashed
- The Core Knowledge Blog
- This Week in Education
- Inside School Research
- Teacher Leadership Today
- On the Shoulders of Giants
- Teacher in a Strange Land
- Teach Moore
- The Tempered Radical
- The Educated Reporter
- Taking Note
- Character Education Partnership Blog
- Why I Teach
8th Grade Algebra
Thanks for a thought-provoking post.
There may be some other considerations in the issue of 8th grade algebra success and readiness than the ones raised by Tom Loveless in the article.
You're correct in noting that having inexperienced (or downright weak) teachers or attending school in conditions of poverty will impact achievement in math, but there are other factors in establishing 8th grade algebra as the norm.
First--shouldn't we assume that it would take any school district /state somewhere around 5 years to re-calibrate and reconstruct their mathematics curriculum to prepare 8th graders for algebra? The students in India or China who are doing algebra successfully were prepared for abstract mathematics with lots of pre-algebra math lessons in lower grades. To impose algebra in 8th grade and expect more than 30% of the students to be successful, immediately, is folly.
Regarding the large numbers of math students who don't have automaticity in math facts--while that is troubling, it is not the sole reason that low-achieving math students are not successful with algebra in the 8th grade. I taught 7th grade math, which included many pre-algebraic strands. Most of my students came to me with solid arithmetic skills, including fluent access to memorized facts (achieved back in the 3rd and 4th grades). Many of those students struggled mightily trying to solve simple one-variable equations. For some, it helped to have mental models--pictures, demonstrations, graphs. Other kids preferred to memorize an algebraic algorithm skill (and were confused when they tried to "understand" what it meant). Others were simply not ready, even though they were OK with arithmetic computation.
Which leads to the real question here: what is our goal? If it's algebra in the 8th grade for everyone, we will undoubtedly have a failure rate. We can reduce that rate, over time, but failing a math class that they're not ready for doesn't do our students any good. I think our goal should be "algebra for everyone." Whenever they're ready, be it 7th grade or 10th grade. Raising our national numeric literacy, not using 8th grade algebra as another politicized football in the Math Wars.
Post new comment