Rushing Math

Plenty of students are ready for algebra by eighth grade, or sooner. But not everyone is. "One hundred twenty thousand eighth-graders are sitting in advanced math classes even though they score in the bottom 10 percent," Loveless wrote. "They know about as much math as the typical second-grader. They do not know basic arithmetic and cannot correctly answer NAEP items using fractions, decimals, or percents."

Some see the flourishing eighth-grade algebra movement as a triumph for equity. Activist educator Robert Moses calls it "the new civil right." Loveless acknowledged that the misplaced bottom 10th are much more likely to be poor, black or Hispanic and more likely to be in a big urban school than average eighth-graders. Yet the shortcomings of the misplaced students in those urban schools are slowing down algebra classes with hundreds of thousands of well-prepared students "who are also predominantly black, Hispanic or poor."