California abandons algebra requirement for eighth-graders

[exboyfil]

78. My daughters came out of elementary school in a very good school

system. My oldest (the better of the two at math) did not get into PreAlgebra in 7th grade, and was instead in a very good middle school math class that had some overlap in curriculum with the PreAlgebra class (which would have been the class she would have taken next if she had not skipped it - that is another story). If she had stayed on track with that (and many of her high performing classmates have gone that route including at least one planning on going into engineering), then they would take Algebra in 9th grade and terminated with Precalculus in 12th grade (still on sequence to graduate in 4 years from an engineering college). Nothing is wrong with this approach. It is right for some students - actually it is probably right for most students.

Some get on this board and brag about finishing Calculus BC by 12th grade. Most students are not capable of doing this. Even if you have to take Precalculus in college, it is not a significant set back from finishing a technical degree in science, engineering, or math. Most degrees in college only require math to a Precalculus level anyway (I could argue that all students should have Calculus I to get a B.S./B.A., but I got flamed about that before).

As I mentioned I live in a community with a pretty high performing public school system. We have mostly intact families with significant involvement by these families in the school system. We have very few ESLs and a low percentage of free school lunch kids. We have all the advantages and parents still recognize that many kids are not ready for Algebra in 8th grade. I worked hard to get my younger daughter into Algebra in 8th, and she lost her 4.0 in 9th grade Geometry (got an A-). I don't question the decision to place her in Algebra in 8th grade, but she would have been blown away in Algebra in 8th grade without my tutoring. She plans to terminate with a B.A. and Calculus I (she wants to go to medical school). She loves life science (is currently in a 11th/12th grade Microbiology and Anatomy and Physiology class), but she does not care for math.

My father-in-law is a former professor of mathematics at a teaching college. He agrees with me that Algebra in 8th grade is not suitable for all students. The mandate was foolish to begin with and looked at correlations and did not realize causations.