Math Rushing

One hundred twenty thousand students are misplaced in their eighth-grade math classes.

They have not been prepared to learn themathematics that they are expected to learn.
This unfortunate situation arose from good intentions and the worthy objective of raising
expectations for all American students.

Two groups of students pay a price. The misplaced eighth graders waste a year of mathematics,
lost in a curriculum of advanced math when they have not yet learned elementary
arithmetic. They should be taught whole number and fraction arithmetic so that
they can then move on to successfully learn advanced mathematics.

Their classmates also lose—students who are good at math and ready for algebra.
These well-prepared but ill-served students also tend to be black and Hispanic and to
come from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

Teachers report that classes of students with widely diverse mathematics preparation
impede effective teaching, that too many students arrive in algebra classes unmotivated
to learn, and that they wish that elementary schools gave greater emphasis to basic skills
and concepts in math. When algebra teachers have to depart from the curriculum to
teach arithmetic, the students who already know arithmetic and are ready for algebra are
the losers.