Conversely, poor schools are much less likely to adopt an Algebra for All policy for eighth graders. Nearly half of the wealthiest schools offered algebra to all eighth-graders, compared with about a third of the poorest schools.
Mathematics teachers in schools with high poverty rates tend to have poorer professional preparation. They were more likely to have entered the profession without first earning a traditional education degree at a college or university, instead completing an alternative certificate program on the job, often without supervised student teaching. They were less likely to obtain a postgraduate degree or obtain a qualification in mathematics.
In surveys, one-third of mathematics teachers in high-poverty schools reported spending more than half their class time teaching topics below grade level, as well as managing and disciplining student behavior. Lecture-style teaching, rather than classroom discussion, was more common in poorer schools than in wealthier schools. RAND researchers also found similar discrepancies in teaching patterns when they examined schools along racial and ethnic lines, with black and Hispanic students receiving a “less optimal” education than white students. But these discrepancies were stronger by income than by race, suggesting that poverty may be a larger factor than bias.
Many communities have tried to include more eighth-graders in algebra classes, but that has sometimes left unprepared students worse off. “Just giving them an eighth-grade algebra course is not a silver bullet,” said AIR’s Goldhaber, who commented on the RAND analysis during a Nov. 5 webinar. Either the material is too difficult and students fail or the course was “algebra” in name only and did not actually cover the content. Without a college preparatory track of advanced mathematics classes to pursue algebra, the benefits of taking Algebra 1 in eighth grade are unlikely to accrue.
It is also not economically practical for many low-income middle schools to offer an Algebra 1 course when few students are advanced enough to take it. A teacher should be assigned even to a small number of students and these resources might be more effectively spent on something else that would benefit more students. This puts more advanced students in low-income schools at a particular disadvantage. “It’s a difficult issue for schools to address on their own,” Goldhaber said.
Improving the quality of mathematics teachers in the poorest schools is a crucial first step. Some researchers have suggested paying more money to strong math teachers to work in high-poverty schools, but this would also require renegotiating union contracts in many cities. Even with financial incentives, there is a shortage of mathematics teachers.
For students, AIR’s Goldhaber says the time to intervene in math is in elementary school to make sure more low-income students have strong basic math skills. “Do it before middle school,” Goldhaber said. “For many students, middle school is far behind.”
This story is about him Eighth grade mathematics Written by Gilles Barshay and produced by Hechinger Reportan independent, nonprofit news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Proof points And others Hechinger Newsletters.