Algebra in eighth grade may be back across San Francisco public schools, 12 years after the district stopped offering it.
The course was removed from middle schools under the rationale that many students — especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds — would benefit from having more time to master foundational math before tackling algebra in high school.
But the plan didn’t work. The number of students enrolled in advanced high school math declined, and wide racial gaps remained. Meanwhile, many parents enrolled their children in summer and after-school math courses to keep them accelerated, often paying out of pocket.
For years, San Francisco “tried to achieve equity not by raising the floor, but by lowering the ceiling,” said Thomas S. Dee, a Stanford University economist who led a research team studying the policy. “It’s a problem we see nationally,” he added.
On Tuesday evening, the San Francisco Unified School District’s board is expected to vote on a proposal to make algebra widely available in eighth grade.
For decades, middle school algebra has been an important step on the way to being accepted into a selective college. Taking Algebra I in eighth grade allows students to proceed to geometry in ninth grade, Algebra II in 10th, pre-calculus in 11th and, finally, calculus during the senior year of high school — a crucial marker of rigor for college admissions offices.
In San Francisco, the loss of eighth-grade algebra prompted a lawsuit and a 2024 ballot initiative in which voters overwhelmingly demanded that algebra return to middle schools.
Anger over math also contributed to a roiling political movement in the Bay Area and beyond. Some voters were deeply disappointed with left-leaning school districts’ actions during the Covid-19 pandemic — long school closures and, they argued, equity policies that sacrificed academic rigor.
“We’re the center of technological innovation in the United States and we can’t teach our kids math?” said Steven Bacio, a founder of GrowSF, an advocacy group that supports accelerated learning. “It upended existing political alliances and got tens of thousands of people paying attention.”
The city’s new class of elected officials, including school board members and Mayor Daniel Lurie, tend to strongly support eighth-grade algebra. Reinstating the class could help the San Francisco district reverse enrollment declines that reduce funding, said Phil Kim, the school board president.
“Families want to see a public school system that offers rigorous coursework,” he said. “This is absolutely an instructional strategy. But it’s also a retention tool to bring families to our district and demonstrate we will not only take care of your children, but we will teach them, too.”
Maria Su, the district’s superintendent, will present a plan to the school board that would make algebra an eighth-grade elective in 19 schools, intended to be taken concurrently with regular eighth-grade math. Any eighth grader would be able to enroll in algebra, but high-achieving students would be automatically placed in the course with the ability to opt out — a policy meant to increase access for underrepresented demographic groups.
For families who do not want their children lose an elective period, there will be an option to enroll in algebra as the only eighth-grade math course, but only if the student meets eligibility requirements.
Another two schools will participate in a pilot program in which all middle school students will take an accelerated math sequence, covering Math 6, 7, 8 and Algebra I over a three-year period.
The plan is based on the results of a two-year experiment, in which the district tried several approaches to middle school math. The results were tested by Professor Dee’s research team at Stanford.
The data showed “dramatic gains” in math scores for students who enrolled in algebra and Math 8 concurrently — equivalent to nearly a full extra year of learning, Professor Dee said.
Students in the study who skipped Math 8 and enrolled in algebra were more likely to have to repeat algebra in ninth grade, but that effect was diminished for students with a higher base line level of achievement, Professor Dee said.
The results suggest the opportunity for “a quick win” in education at a relatively low cost, he added. “Simply making rich academic content more broadly available is an appealing strategy.”
He noted that at least nine states are moving toward automatically enrolling high-achieving students in advanced course work, including Texas, North Carolina and Washington.
Dana Goldstein covers education and families for The Times.
The post San Francisco Killed 8th-Grade Algebra. Now It’s Set to Come Back. appeared first on New York Times.
