The Algebra Hoax

Abstract

About 120,000 8th graders taking algebra have math skills at the 2nd-grade level--at best. My guess is that there are hundreds of thousands more in those algebra courses whose skills are not much better. This is because of a widespread belief that algebra is a gateway course. We get to the 120,000 figure via Brookings Institution researcher Tom Loveless, who worked with National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) limited-use data, which allow researchers to drill down to the individual student level in analyses. Loveless finds that the number of low achievers, students who make up the bottom 10% of NAEP scorers, increased from 3% of those tested in 2000 to 7.8% in (2005.) latter percent yields the figure of 120,000. I imagine that the next 10% also didn't fare well. Loveless figures this number means the average 8th-grade algebra teacher with 26 students has two students who, essentially, don't know any math. He calls them students. The misplaced 8th graders score an average of 211 [on NAEP], which is 27 scale score points below the national average for 4th grade. Analysts consider 11 NAEP scale points as about equivalent to one year of learning, which means that these misplaced students know about as much as a typical 2nd grader. Advanced students (the top 10% in Loveless' scheme) score about one year above grade level. misplaced students function about seven grade levels below peers in the same courses. overall 8th-grade average on NAEP is 279; for students at the top, it is 291. Loveless presents a couple of NAEP released item results to indicate the scope of the problem. Here they are: There were 90 employees in a company last year. This year, the number of employees increased by 10%. How many employees are in the company this year? While 48.7% of students in advanced courses answered correctly, only 9.8% of misplaced students did. That is far less than chance. Alba needed to know about how much the sum of 19.6, 23.8, and 38.4 is. She correctly rounded each of these numbers to the nearest whole number. What three numbers did she use? Almost 88% of advanced students answered correctly, but only 37% of misplaced students got it right. Loveless also presents data for three more nonreleased items that show similar results, including one where 57% of advanced students responded correctly, compared to only 3.9% of misplaced students. Loveless describes the typical rationale for 8th-grade algebra: or remedial math courses tend to be curricular dead-ends, leading to more courses with the same title (for example, General Math 9, General Math 10) and no real progression in mathematical content. By completing algebra in 8th grade--and then completing a sequence of geometry as freshmen, advanced algebra as sophomores, and trigonometry, math analysis, or pre-calculus as juniors--students are able to take calculus in the senior year of high school. Assuming, of course, that the kids haven't dropped out, frustrated to tears by incomprehensible math. Loveless presents no arguments that all students should take algebra or calculus. But he does make the case that learning algebra is a civil rights issue, particularly as presented by the Algebra Project's Robert Moses in a paper for the U. S. Department of Education, Algebra: New Civil Right. Evidence for a civil rights dynamic comes from looking at the background characteristics of the misplaced students: They are overwhelmingly black and Hispanic (77% vs. 32% of all 8th graders) and likely to qualify for a free or reduced-price meal (70% vs. 30% in all advanced classes and 36% in the nation). Most of the misplaced students attend large urban public schools (average size 1,012 student vs. 794 in the nation). Only 2.3% of them attend private schools. …