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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Do you think there are multiple sections of algebra that are tracked, like one for the kids who are actually ready to take algebra? Do you think the school is putting kids in Grade 8 math and then having them sit for the algebra PARCC? You're going to have a better sense of whether either of these are plausible. [/quote]

I do not know. You'd have to ask each school what they do.[/quote]

OK, so: in the absence of something that would be truly non-standard behavior for DCPS, if your kid is taking algebra in a class with 28 or so kids at that school, only about four of those kids are going to pass the test, another 5 will get 3s, and the rest are wholly unprepared to take algebra.

Which brings us back to: are they teaching it at a level that's inappropriate for most of the class, or at a level that's inappropriate for the small number of kids who are ready to take algebra? If you send your kids there, are you thinking about this or kind of not really because you're not looking at the data?[/quote]

I would think that a teacher is capable of differentiation within a class of 8th graders.  It seems like you are being kind of rigid in your thinking about this.  It's very normal to have in-class differentiation. I don't know why someone would take a PARCC test they have no hope of passing but I'm sure they have their reasons, and I don't think it affects my kid's experience what test other kids take.

I probably wouldn't send my own kid to a school without an algebra class, but I wouldn't care if some of the kids don't pass the test as long as some did.
[/quote]

How old is your kid? When you think about teacher differentiation for Algebra in a class of 8th graders, what do you have in mind? Some kids move slower than others? Some kids learn all the algebra and others only learn part? Some kids in the class aren't keeping up so they fail every test? How do think that would work in a class of 13/14 year olds, all of whom are earning grades that may determine their eligibility for a selective high school?

My kid attends a school that is trying "algebra for all" and I'm worried about whether my kid (on grade level) is actually going to be instructed at a level that will ensure that they've learned algebra.[/quote]

You might be interested, either for yourself, or to bring to your school:

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2021/03/18/why-common-core-failed/

"Simply having higher expectations is not enough to drive systemic improvement downstream. One of the most highly replicated findings of education research is that a good predictor of how much students will learn tomorrow is how much they know today. Studies of interventions that simply ratchet up expectations without regard for students’ prior knowledge have yielded disappointing results. The “algebra for all” policies of the 1990s and early 2000s placed many unprepared eighth graders in Algebra I courses. They not only failed to learn algebra and fell further behind their peers, but many subsequently took a series of advanced math courses that doomed their high school math careers to repeated failure."

A relevant paper: The Aftermath of Accelerating Algebra Evidence from District Policy Initiatives

"The proportion of students taking a first algebra course in middle school has doubled over the past generation and there have been calls to make eighth grade algebra universal. We use significant policy shifts in the timing of algebra in two large North Carolina districts to infer the impact of accelerated entry into algebra on student performance in math courses as students progress through high school. We find no evidence of a positive mean impact of acceleration in any specification and significant negative effects on performance in both Algebra I and the traditional followup course, Geometry. Accelerating algebra to middle school appears benign or beneficial for higher performing students but unambiguously harmful to the lowest performers. We consider whether the effects reflect the reliance on less-qualified teachers and conclude that this mechanism explains only a small fraction of the result."[/quote]

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