At a time when districts throughout the state have cut summer school, a class to boost algebra readiness in Silicon Valley has more than doubled enrollment.
Stepping Up to Algebra is conducting a mathematics boot camp for about 1,000 seventh and eighth graders in nine school districts. A vigorous fund-raising campaign by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation enabled the program to expand.
The four-week course targets students who need extra help to enable them to be ready to take Algebra I. Mastering that course sets students on track to taking advanced mathematics and science in high school.
Foundation leaders say that the greatest single predictor of college success is whether a student has become proficient in Algebra II, a high school course.
The foundation had hoped to offer the four-week algebra-readiness class to 750 students, but fund-raising was so