Requiring Algebra II in high school gains momentum nationwide

Washington Post ^ | April 3, 2011 | Peter Whoriskey

[reaganaut1]

With its intricate mysteries of quadratics, logarithms and imaginary numbers, Algebra II often provokes a lament from high-schoolers.

What exactly does this have to do with real life?

The answer: maybe more than anyone could have guessed.

Of all of the classes offered in high school, Algebra II is the leading predictor of college and work success, according to research that has launched a growing national movement to require it of graduates.

In recent years, 20 states and the District have moved to raise graduation requirements to include Algebra II, and its complexities are being demanded of more and more students.

The effort has been led by Achieve, a group organized by governors and business leaders and funded by corporations and their foundations, to improve the skills of the workforce. Although U.S. economic strength has been attributed in part to high levels of education, the workforce is lagging in the percentage of younger workers with college degrees, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.

But exactly how to raise the education levels of the U.S. workforce is a matter of debate. And whether learning Algebra II causes students to fare better in life, or whether it is merely correlated with them doing better — because smart, motivated kids take Algebra II — isn’t clear. Meanwhile, some worry that Algebra II requirements are leading some young people to quit school.

The District this year joins other states requiring high school graduates to meet the Achieve standards that include Algebra II; Maryland and Virginia do not.

But no state has pushed Algebra II more than Arkansas, which began requiring the class last year for most graduates

[Tax-chick]

Your proposal would require teachers who can read, write, and do arithmetic. Have you read a recent letter to the editor or blog post written by a teacher?

[truthkeeper]

Ah yes...the NEW “new math.” LOL

[Alberta's Child]

Interesting take. I think your comment goes right to the heart of the question: What exactly is the purpose of a high school education?

I would suggest that anyone (especially an intelligent person by any objective measure) who is not capable of taking Algebra II because of their inability to understand abstract principles simply doesn't belong in the same academic program as someone who can do the work. Both students belong in high school, but it is obvious that they are not destined for the same career path and therefore it is a crime to pretend that they are.

[oh8eleven]

Algebra II is not hard.
Easy for you to say - and me too. I took four years of math in HS, aced three out of the four and did most of it without even doing the homework.
Forty years later I have two kids - one teaches HS math (and can barely write a sentence), the other an English Lit teacher who can barely balance his checkbook.
Personally, I think the forced math requirement in HS should be dropped once a kid learns how to make change for a dollar in his head.

[wintertime]

Of all of the classes offered in high school, Algebra II is the leading predictor of college and work success, according to research that has launched a growing national movement to require it of graduates.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

As an employer I testify that a high school diploma is WORTHLESS as proof that someone can even read! Algebra II? Geeze! I would have been thrilled to get high school graduate applicants who could do long division! So....I have a better idea:

1) Get government completely out of the education business on every level. Government should have NOTHING to do with educating kids!

2) Charles Murray is right! We should move toward privately administered qualifying exams. If a kid passes a well recognized and accepted private test showing that he has mastered Algebra II then that would mean something, not only to the kid and his parents, but to employers and college admission administrators as well.

[Ro_Thunder]

I graduated in 1988. We had to get two math credits, to include Algebra I, and II, then Geometry, Trig, then Calc.

I took Algebra I in 8th grade, II in 9th, and Geometry in 10th. No more math for me!

[eyeamok]

So they are going to start teaching what used to be 7th grade material in High School ?? What a sad state of affairs our education system is in, abolish the whole damned thing and start over.

[truthkeeper]

BTW, you have also explained why (as much as I hated Algebra) I was actually good at isolating the variable.

Because I could SEE it. :-)

[Concho]

This proposal would be fine but for one problem. We do not have anyone in todays colleges or universities who can take the theoretical math and apply it to any practical application. Students are not being shown what the real live practical applications of math can do.

[wintertime]

I believe calculus should be on the books for high school students
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

One way to get smarter government teachers would be to require Calculus. Everyone of them should be required to take Calculus I , in the **same** classes and side by side, with engineering, math, and hard science students.

If every government teacher in this nation were required to take the GED for high school drop outs how many would fail? How many would fail the math portion of the exam? How many can add, subtract, and multiply fractions? How many know the long division algorithm? Gee! I'd even give them the entire summer to study for the exam.

[Roos_Girl]

I’m a civil engineer. Growing up I always thought (and my grades confirmed) that math was my worst subject. When it came time to take my SAT, I got the same score in math and English...twice; total score back then was 1220, but I think they’ve since changed the scoring method.

I hated geometry, got a D one grade period and Bs and Cs the other. I went ahead and signed up for honors Algebra II; had to work my butt off and still barely pulled B/Cs. Which set me up for some regular everyday math class my senior year. My Algebra II teacher wouldn’t recommend me for trig & analytic geometry because of my grades. I sat through a week of that (I thought of it as remedial) math class my senior year and couldn’t stand it; biggest bunch of morons in that class that I had ever seen in my high school career. I talked my mom into signing an override so I could take trig & analyt. Again worked my butt off, but pulled A/Bs. Best thing I ever did for myself in high school. And I guess I did it because I was ashamed to be in that “remedial” math class that I could have coasted through. Amazing what a bit of shame and some hard work can accomplish.

[PapaBear3625]

But exactly how to raise the education levels of the U.S. workforce is a matter of debate. And whether learning Algebra II causes students to fare better in life, or whether it is merely correlated with them doing better — because smart, motivated kids take Algebra II — isn’t clear.

Algebra II is a filter process. Somebody who cannot deal with Algebra II is unlikely to be able to do well in college or in any job that requires abstract thinking.

I disagree with making it a requirement, because so many low-IQ kids will flunk it that it will create overwhelming pressure to dumb it down to the point where IQ-80 kids can pass.

As others have noted, the solution is to have a viable Junior High School diploma which certifies that the holder can read and write tolerably, and do math through fractions and percents. Have school end for them at 16, and have them shift to job training.

[oh8eleven]

Students are not being shown what the real live practical applications of math can do.
Other than job specific requirements, what other applications of math are there in life other than simple arithmetic?

[Old Teufel Hunden]

I would say that to do Algebra and Calculus requires the ability to develop abstract thinking. Hence, this is not good for the left. We can’t have young people develop this ability because they may actually think about things Obama says instead of just hearing “hope and change”. For myself, I did okay with Algebra I, II and Trig in high school. What kicked my butt in College was Statistics and Discrete Math.

[InterceptPoint]

Hmmm, my kids had Algebra 2 wired by third grade (age 10)

That would be an amazing feat. Are you sure that your kids can handle imaginary numbers, simultaneous equations, the quadratic formula, factoring, completing the square, plotting functions, finding slopes ...?

BTW, I have a 4th grader grandson who is using Saxon Math and I hear it is quite good.

I'm also successfully tutoring a 12 year old grandson in Algebra I after pushing him through a 1 year Pre-Algebra book in about 8 weeks last summer. He is a 7th grader getting an A competing against the best of the 8th graders at his school.

[oh8eleven]

I disagree with making it a requirement, because so many low-IQ kids will flunk it
It's not always an IQ thing. Some very intelligent people do not have the capacity for math other than simple arithmetic.

[MrB]

I don’t disagree in principle with your plan,
but the implementation would have to be very carefully watched at the local level (not higher),

because you don’t want the left/elitists “tracking” people into certain careers. They’re already trying to do that in order to make sure that only those with the “right” worldview get into positions of prestige and power.

If an assessment test showed someone to have a “too Christian” worldview, you can bet that that person will not be recommended for any track that might lead them into law or politics.

[wmileo]

"Should be in elementary school! Have you seen students’ (including college) writing skills?"

I am 63 years old and went to the NYC Public School System from K-12. That was back when the NYC Public Schools were considered among the best in the country(BU, before unions).

I took Algebra I in the ninth grade, Algebra II in the eleventh grade, Geometry in the tenth grade and Calculus in the twelfth grade. There was nothing extraordinary about that for hundreds of my fellow student. It was generally considered what you needed to take for an Academic H.S. Diploma which would prepare you to go to college.

Today it is readily possible to get into college with the most basic math skills that prepare you to balance a check book and little else.

It is the dumbing down of our culture which started in the late nineteen sixties)and continues to this very day), which is hampering our ability to find qualified people to take over when my generation is out of the work force.

I work for an engineering company in NJ. The technical work force has no Caucasian Americans under the age of 30 and no African Americans at all. The engineers and computer science folks are mostly middle age white men and women as well as all ages of east and west Asians.

This is the contribution that the Unionizes Teachers of Public Schools has made to out culture as well as the politicians. That is why the get 4-5% raises every year.

[Alberta's Child]

I’m a civil engineer, too. Struggled through all of my math classes in high school except geometry (for some reason I was so good at it that I practically could have taught the class myself). And yet I eventually understood all of it . . . it’s just that I was kind of like a year behind schedule. I could have aced Algebra I if I had taken a final exam in the middle of Algebra II, I finally understood Algebra II during my trigonometry/pre-calculus class the following year, etc. I think it’s because I never took to learning those subjects when they were “book subjects,” but everything clicked once I was in a situation where I had to know them almost by second nature in order to deal with another subject matter.

[wintertime]

Teacher’s Unions
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That will not solve the problem.

Efforts to improve education will not get anywhere until **GOVERNMENT** is out of the picture.

We need complete separation of school and state.