Algebra I is known as a gateway class: Students who pass the course are more likely to take advanced math courses, graduate from college and earn more money as adults.
But for many children, their path to success in Algebra I is formed years before they take the class. Third grade math scores can strongly predict which students will go on to pass Algebra I and which ones may struggle.
A recent working paper analyzing test scores of over 1.7 million Texas students explored the phenomenon. It found that the gaps in Algebra I pass rates between low-income, Black and Hispanic students and these students’ more affluent, white and Asian peers can largely be traced to how well students master early, foundational math skills.
Third grade math scores are the first point when researchers can capture how well children are learning early math, said Ben Backes, a principal economist at the American Institutes for Research and one of the authors of the working paper. But “education doesn’t start in third grade,” he said — those foundational skills are built much earlier.
Other research has shown the connection between early achievement and later school success, but this study, conducted by AIR and the National Center for the Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research, or CALDER, explored Algebra I specifically because that course is so pivotal for students.
The study also captured how the pandemic derailed the academic growth of some students. For example, low-income students who had the same test scores as more affluent peers fell further behind. Students with already low test scores saw a steeper decline in their math skills compared to students with higher scores.
Policy makers have tried other ways to boost Algebra I pass rates, such as delaying the class until ninth grade, or enrolling all students in the course. But those policies might not be getting at the root of the problem, the authors concluded: “Our results underscore the importance of targeting resources to early elementary math instruction, especially for low-achieving students.”
That message, however, still has to get through to school leaders, said Deborah Stipek, the faculty director for Development and Research in Early Mathematics Education, a network of scholars focused on improving math instruction for young children.
In California, for example, education majors take two or three courses on teaching reading, compared to one course on math education, said Stipek, a professor emerita at Stanford University. And, in a recent survey of nearly 100 California superintendents, the majority ranked English language arts as their top instructional priority; math was third.
There are instructional tools to help teachers who might have a handful of students who are behind their peers. But “in places where you have a very large group of kids that are living in poverty or learning English, you have classrooms where the majority of kids by first grade are way behind,” Stipek said. “We need more and better teaching, in general.”
This story about early math was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.
