9486 in the collection
Recalculating The 8th-Grade Algebra Rush
Ohanian Comment: The
real question is why should everyone
learn algebra? Might not our children's future
lives have better chance of being enhanced if
we decreed that everyone should learn to play
the flute?
By Jay Mathews
Nobody writing about schools has been a bigger
supporter of getting more students into eighth-
grade algebra than I have been. I wrote a two-
part series for the front page six years ago
that pointed out how important it is to be able
to handle algebra's abstractions and unknown
quantities before starting high school. I have
argued that we should rate middle schools by
the percentage of students who complete Algebra
I by eighth grade.
Now, because of a startling study being
released today, I am having second thoughts.
Tom Loveless, director of the Brown Center on
Education Policy at the Brookings Institution,
has looked at the worst math students, those
scoring in the bottom 10th on the National
Assessment of Educational Progress eighth-grade
test. He discovered that 28.6 percent of them -
- let me make that clear: nearly three out of
every 10 -- were enrolled in first-year
algebra, geometry or second-year algebra.
Almost all were grossly misplaced, probably
because of the push to get kids into algebra
sooner.
The report (to be available at
http://www.brookings.edu/brown.aspx ) reprints
this simple NAEP problem:
There were 90 employees in a company last year.
This year the number of employees increased by
10 percent. How many employees are in the
company this year?
A) 9
B) 81
C) 91
D) 99
E) 100
The correct answer is D. Ten percent of 90 is
9. Add that to 90 and you get 99. How many of
the misplaced students got it right? Just 9.8
percent. Not good.
This is a big problem for the region and the
nation. Politicians and policymakers have
fallen in love with the idea of eighth-grade
algebra for all. Their ardor is not likely to
cool off soon. California is moving toward
making the course mandatory for eighth-graders,
a shift Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) compared
to President John F. Kennedy's pledge to put a
man on the moon.
Other states and cities are moving in the same
direction. In D.C. public schools, 51 percent
of eighth-graders tested by NAEP in 2007 said
they were enrolled in first-year algebra or
above, the fourth-highest percentage in the
country. Yet the D.C. average score on the NAEP
math test (which is not an algebra test) was
lower than the score in every state.
It's not that I haven't been warned about this.
Many teachers treat me like their favorite D-
plus student. They send me thoughtful e-mails
trying to explain, in simple language, where I
have gone wrong. I received such a message on
this topic two weeks ago from Stu Singer, a
retired Fairfax County high school math
teacher. He said the practice of trying to get
every last kid into eighth-grade algebra "has
now grown to a critical and in my opinion
detrimental level."
Singer and Loveless say plenty of students are
ready for algebra by eighth grade, or sooner.
But not everyone is. "One hundred twenty
thousand eighth-graders are sitting in advanced
math classes even though they score in the
bottom 10 percent," Loveless wrote. "They know
about as much math as the typical second-
grader. They do not know basic arithmetic and
cannot correctly answer NAEP items using
fractions, decimals, or percents."
Some see the flourishing eighth-grade algebra
movement as a triumph for equity. Activist
educator Robert Moses calls it "the new civil
right." Loveless acknowledged that the
misplaced bottom 10th are much more likely to
be poor, black or Hispanic and more likely to
be in a big urban school than average eighth-
graders. Yet the shortcomings of the misplaced
students in those urban schools are slowing
down algebra classes with hundreds of thousands
of well-prepared students "who are also
predominantly black, Hispanic or poor."
Suburbanites might think this doesn't affect
them. In Maryland, 52 percent of eighth-graders
reported taking first-year algebra or a more
advanced class. In Virginia, the rate was 42
percent. The national average was 36 percent.
Maryland ranked 16th and Virginia eighth among
states on the NAEP test. Those results appear
strong, but to me and others, they are not
strong enough. Check that math problem above.
Nationally, only 36.5 percent of eighth-graders
and 48.7 percent of those in Algebra I or above
answered correctly.
We know math instruction has to improve in
lower grades, a subject my colleague Maria Glod
explores on this page today. Many people would
also argue we should let far fewer eighth-
graders try algebra. But such gate-keeping can
shut out motivated or suddenly maturing
students who surprise their teachers and do
well.
It would be better to think of algebra as we do
swimming: something everyone should learn, but
most importantly learn well. Get everyone into
the pool as soon as possible. But let's not
mark them as having passed the course until we
are sure they can swim several lengths without
drowning.
E-mail:mathewsj@washpost.com
— Jay Mathews
Washington Post
2008-09-22
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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