An education committee recommended Tuesday that the state stop docking the test scores of districts that don’t offer Algebra I in 8th grade. The recommendation by the Public Schools Accountability Act Advisory Committee would reverse a decade-old practice and could go to the State Board of Education as early as next month.
Jenny Singh, administrator with CDE’s academic accountability unit, explains the 8th grade math recommendation (click to enlarge).
The Advisory Committee is charged with suggesting changes to the state’s school accountability system, the Academic Performance Index or API. It will soon be transformed as a result of the switch from state tests to tests aligned to the new Common Core standards, as well as the passage of Senate Bill 1458, which requires that career and college readiness measures and high school graduation rates be included, along with standardized test results, in the API.
On Tuesday, though, the committee dispensed with the controversial penalties and incentives surrounding 8th grade math.
The State Board already has already adopted Common Core’s pre-algebra course as the new default curriculum for 8th grade and stripped California’s Algebra I standards from 8th grade. Most students will likely take the full Common Core Algebra I in 9th grade. So dropping the penalties for offering non-Algebra math would be consistent
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