Brookings Institute Looks….

at eighth grade algebra in a new report.

They say around 31% of students in 2007 took algebra before high school.

In one graph they look at from the years of 2000-2007 they showed that as a whole 8th grade NAEP scores went up, but for advanced students a couple of years saw a drop in NAEP scores.

In one table they show a more than doubling of low achieving students in 8th grade taking some sort of algebra class.

The also look at 120,000 misplaced 10th graders who are mainly Black and Latino students. A bunch of these students also are free lunch students as well. The report says that these students are more likely to get a teacher who has less than five years of experience.

I still say algebra in the eighth grade can be done. You have to have the proper curriculum for the students to get this done and proper college instruction which the NCTQ has blasted when it comes to elementary math instruction. That is not going to be an easy thing to accomplish.