From suburbs in the Northeast to major cities on the West Coast, a surprising subject is prompting ballot measures, lawsuits and bitter fights among parents: algebra. Students have been required for decades to learn to solve for the variable x, and to find the slope of a line. Most complete the course in their first year of high school. But top-achievers are sometimes allowed to enroll earlier, typically in eighth grade. The dual pathways inspire some of the most fiery debates over equity and academic opportunity in American education.
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Maybe school districts need to remind themselves of the Algebra Project, which was created after identifying that math is the passport to more choices and a better life. It is not really a question of algebra alone. Math is built one brick at a time; it is all connected. Have a look at The Chicago Pre-College Science and Engineering Program (ChiS&E) and its successful predecessor in Detroit, DAPCEP (Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program), both started by Kenneth Hill, who has learned that if he could teach math in Central Africa, he could teach it in Detroit and Chicago. I wish all schools learned his wisdom.
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