WASHINGTON — More kids than ever are taking algebra in eighth grade but not necessarily learning more math, private researchers report.
In fact, while eighth-graders are doing better on national math tests, students in advanced classes are faring worse, according to the study being released today by the Brookings Institution.
“We have kids who are misplaced in their math classes,” said Tom Loveless, the study’s author. “They don’t know very much math at all, and yet they’re taking courses in advanced math.”
The study takes a provocative look at a subject many people view as a matter of racial equality. Once unavailable to many minority and poor children, algebra is becoming widely accepted as a must-have for eighth-graders. It is considered a “gateway” course for higher learning.
Students who take it that year are on track for calculus as seniors. President Clinton made eighth-grade algebra a priority, and an influential 1995 book labeled algebra “The New Civil Right.”
Enrollment doubled from 1990 to 2007, when nearly one-third of eighth-graders were taking algebra. In July, California decided all eighth- graders should take algebra; Minnesota did so in 2006.
But the study says many students in algebra class are unprepared. Eighth-grade math scores have dropped for algebra students even as overall scores have improved.
The study was based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the nation’s report card. That assessment is the only uniform benchmark of how well children are learning.
The study is alarming to some advocates who worry that its focus will add to an argument that minority and low-income kids should not take the class.
“So what’s the alternative — to let them continue in eighth grade to take low-level or basic math?” said William H. Schmidt, a Michigan State University professor of statistics and education. “Why would we do that to our children, especially to these minority kids who need to be given a better shot to succeed?”
Schmidt pointed out that students in dozens of other countries are required take algebra in eighth grade or even earlier. Yet he agrees with Loveless that U.S. students desperately need better preparation.
Adding it all up in the eighth grade
Among findings in the report “The Misplaced Math Student: Lost in Eighth- Grade Algebra”:
• Enrollment of low achievers — those who score in the bottom 10 percent — has more than doubled in eighth-grade algebra.
• The overwhelming number of low-achieving students are black and Latino and attend big urban, high-poverty schools where they are more likely to fall through the cracks.
• Teachers of low achievers have less experience, fewer formal credentials and weaker math training.
The Associated Press
