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Sunday, December 2, 2012

Algebra For All Yields Failure for Many - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Algebra For All Yields Failure for Many - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:


Algebra For All Yields Failure for Many

The San Francisco Chronicle shared news Friday from a new report from the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning that raises questions about the wisdom of placing all students in Algebra in the 8th grade:

California students who fail algebra and repeat the course are pretty much doomed to fail again, a vicious cycle that wastes limited resources and precious learning time, according to a report released Friday.

Just over a third of students in the 24 school districts studied had to repeat Algebra I either in ninth or 10th grade, yet even after a second year of study, relatively few were proficient in the subject.

Of those who took the class in eighth grade and repeated it as freshmen, just 1 in 5 scored at a