Why schools should bring back eighth-grade algebra
True story: My most recurring dream has to do with math. It’s a nightmare, really. My mind can’t shake off, even when I’m sleeping, the dread and utter misery I felt during my five college years while taking math courses for my economics degree: integral calculus, multivariable calculus, differential equations. My own personal hell continues to be econometrics and its asinine regression models.
I have often wondered if I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been for the high level of math that college required. I did not take early algebra nor advanced calculus in high school. Was I set up for failure? Would I be thriving as an economist now if only I’d had better math preparation earlier? Maybe.
These are some questions swirling in my head as I ponder the current debate roiling K-12 education in America about when to teach algebra and calculus — debates that are now spilling over into politics.
On Super Tuesday, voters in San Francisco overwhelmingly supported a nonbinding measure to bring back eighth-grade algebra. The district had eliminated the subject for eighth-graders 10 years ago.
The debate pits two seemingly worthy goals against each other. On the one hand, the case for teaching algebra to eighth-graders — which sets them on a path to take calculus in high school — is obvious. It’s an important foundational skill for lots of science and technology careers (not to mention economics!). And offering higher-level math also keeps bright kids who might otherwise be bored engaged in their classes.
The argument against it is anchored in equity. Those eighth-grade algebra classes were disproportionately filled with white and Asian students, who then went on to disproportionately fill calculus classes in high school. The theory behind San Francisco’s policy was that it would close racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps by keeping all students in the same classes until later in high school. But it failed to close those gaps.
These early algebra debates have also been causing controversy in Massachusetts. Take Cambridge, where the topic of universal algebra for middle schoolers became a key issue in last fall’s local elections. After “de-leveling” in 2017 — or discontinuing the practice of tracking middle schoolers into two tiers of math because of equity concerns — Cambridge Public Schools is now phasing back in eighth-grade Algebra 1 after pushback from parents and local elected officials. The district plans to offer the subject to all eighthgraders by 2025.
In my view, it’s the right thing to do. Lack of diversity in advanced math classes is a problem, but leveling down is the wrong solution.
“If you have classes where there’s no racial and socioeconomic diversity, the reason for that is not the content,” Will Austin, CEO of the education nonprofit Boston Schools Fund, told me in an interview. Austin spent eight years teaching math to middle schoolers. “It’s not algebra. Changing the content and not addressing the root issues as to why not the same children have access to that content is avoiding the real problem.”
Perhaps there’s so much focus on early algebra because it’s connected to what happens after eighth grade.
“If you don’t master Algebra 1 by the end of eighth grade, you likely won’t get to precalculus by senior year,” Austin said. “That means that you cannot do well on the SATs. You will not have rigorous coursework. So by not finishing Algebra 1 by eighth grade, you’re basically taking yourself out of the competitive college admissions process.”
In other words, if you’re a parent who wants your child to go to a competitive college, your child probably has to take algebra in middle school to have a good shot.
But what if your son doesn’t want to go to college? What if your daughter doesn’t want to go into a STEM field after graduating? Well, there is still a lot of value in being able to think “mathematically.” They can apply what they learned to the real world even if they’re probably not going to need to know what a secant is when they’re 25.
“We all should acknowledge that content tends to not be that important,” Austin said. “Knowing and getting more advanced in mathematics is also about vocabulary and syntax and the application of rules. These are things you do when you write and when you research.”
In thinking back about my own experience, maybe all that math in college, while I hated it, did provide me with foundational mathematical reasoning that I apply today, maybe even unconsciously. I used to enjoy the statistics courses. I’m a journalist but, unlike many journalists, I can manage percentages and probabilities. Calculus may not be, ahem, integral to many careers, but that doesn’t mean it has no absolute value.
This is an excerpt from ¡Mira!, a Globe Opinion newsletter from columnist Marcela García. Sign up to get it in your inbox every Friday.