A long time ago in a back to school night far away our story begins.
My son’s 8th grade algebra teacher welcomed us to his room then asked how many had younger children. I raised my hand. The teacher then announced this was going to be the final year Algebra 1 would be taught in 8th grade.
No. Really??
Tom Loveless, a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, details in this post the PR campaign which followed. It was filled with beautiful promises of a world where opportunity gaps would fade away like the mist.
Those raising the alarm were dismissed and shamed in public meetings and on social media in ways which would make a cult leader proud.
Then came the self congratulations. We did it!!
I mean like the Eurythmics sang :
Would I lie to you honey?
Responsible policy makers such as elected Board of Education members must have seen the data right?
Now would I say something that wasn’t true?
I trust my elected politicians but just for fun let’s look at the data received from the California Public Records Act (CPRA).
43% failed in 8th grade you say? That’s odd. That doesn’t look like a 43% failure to me.
Oh!! Wait. I know. I remember this even. Students taking Algebra 1 had to pass an exit exam before they were promoted to Geometry. My son had to take it at the end of 8th grade.
Strangely enough they removed the exit exam requirement when they delayed the sequence. Beginning with the class of 2019 the student needs a D or better in Algebra 1 to pass go.
But I digress.
So I guess a lot of students must have failed that exit exam??
Out of curiosity, what does the CPRA data say?
649 students in the 8th grade group had to repeat the class in 9th grade.
Lemme see if I remember how to do this.
(649 students/2359 total number of students) X100 = 27.5%
I’m asking you sugar, would I lie to you?
You can find more detail on this and more here.