Sacramento Bee

Sacramento-area schools add algebra requirement to the equation

By Deb Kollars
Saturday, August 2, 2008

When the state Board of Education dropped its bombshell last month requiring algebra for all eighth-graders, many predicted a mess.

Algebra is brutal, they warned. Schools don't have enough qualified teachers. Kids arriving in eighth grade can't even do basic arithmetic. Testing them all in algebra will drive test scores down and dropout rates up.

There is truth in all of the gloom and doom. Yet in many places in the Sacramento region, schools are facing the new algebra mandate – which is expected to take hold in three years – with resolve and optimism.

In recent weeks, local school leaders have been laying plans to strengthen the skills of their math teachers. They are rethinking textbooks and schedules. They are pinpointing math gaps that start in the younger grades.

At least one principal even went back to college this summer to study algebra herself.

"I wanted to know what I was asking my kids to do," said Leise Martinez, the principal at Albert Einstein Middle School in Rosemont.

In her algebra class at Sacramento City College, Martinez studied quadratic formulas this past week. Her final comes on Thursday.

Three and a half weeks later, her middle schoolers will return to Albert Einstein. In a trend not uncommon in the Sacramento area, Martinez had already been rearranging schedules, reassigning teachers and moving more eighth-graders into Algebra 1. This fall, she expects a good 80 percent of them to face the same abstract equations and faithful old formulas that she has been mastering this summer.

"I really believe these kids can do this," Martinez said. "They have to be able to do this. This whole world runs on math."

Huge state decision

Similar beliefs fueled the California Board of Education's majority decision on July 9 to require all eighth-graders to be tested in Algebra 1. The unexpected decision, which came in response to a technical problem involving federal testing requirements, shocked educators up and down the state.

No other state puts all eighth-graders through first-year algebra, although Minnesota is also planning to do so.

The notion of eighth-graders taking algebra is not new. California's math standards call for it, and in recent years the number has steadily grown. Currently, half the state's eighth-graders take Algebra 1, a high rate compared with other states. But the other half are struggling with basic arithmetic skills.

According to state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, it is unfair and unproductive to force children who are behind to take Algebra 1 when schools lack the resources to teach them well. Even among those who take it in eighth grade, only two out of five are proficient, test scores show.

Many students struggle

A visit to summer school at Albert Einstein this past week gave a glimpse of the algebraic mountain now looming.

Einstein is a shaded, older campus in the Sacramento City Unified School District. It sits south of Highway 50 and east of South Watt Avenue.

Here, for five weeks this summer, math teacher Gino Dobrescu has tried to instill his love and understanding of algebra in his students, many of whom would rather be elsewhere.

Often, it is slow going.

Most of his students were assigned to summer school because they had failed or done poorly in pre-algebra or Algebra 1 and needed the boost before entering high school.

"I want you to find the slope, if it exists, in these problems," Dobrescu said one morning last week. "Here, I'll do the first one with you."

Using an old overhead projector, he took them through the process. It involved a formula with x, y and m.

"Negative seven minus five gives us what?"

Silence.

"We learned this in fifth grade. We reviewed it three weeks ago. Negative what?"

A small voice: "Negative 12?"

"Yes," he said, never losing his patience or enthusiasm.

Dobrescu, who has a college math minor, has been teaching for 12 years. He believes eighth-graders can handle algebra, but only if they are proficient in basic math concepts, such as negative numbers, fractions and decimals.

"It is possible. I am 150 percent sure," he said. "But every teacher in every grade has to be on board."

Big hurdles ahead

Leaders in local school districts agreed, saying they don't have just an eighth-grade algebra challenge ahead.

"The students didn't fall behind in eighth grade," said Donna O'Neil, director of curriculum and assessment for the San Juan Unified School District. "They fall behind in the earlier grades. Our second-, third- and fourth-grade scores are high, but then we begin to see a drop-off."

Similarly, the focus is on the fourth, fifth and sixth grades in Sacramento City Unified, said associate superintendent Mary Shelton. Starting this fall, every elementary school will have a lead math teacher assigned to help ensure every student is well-grounded in math before middle school.

In Sacramento City and other local districts, the planning and efforts go back several years.

The Elk Grove Unified School District, for example, has had a goal of getting 75 percent of eighth-graders into Algebra 1, up from 30 percent.

In San Juan, a three-year plan adopted last year calls for increasing both enrollment and achievement. The goal: raise from 28 percent to 58 percent the eighth-graders successfully completing Algebra 1.

"Is it doable? Yes," Shelton said of the new state mandate. Sacramento City, she said, already has half its eighth-graders taking algebra, although fewer than half of those are considered proficient. "It's just that it's a very short time line."

Tight finances aren't helping. Many educators said that if the state expects a half-million eighth-graders to learn algebra, leaders must provide more money for smaller class sizes, extended school days and teacher training.

Not enough qualified teachers

The shortage of math teachers is another trouble spot.

Statewide, at least 74,000 students in junior highs and middle schools who studied Algebra 1 in 2006-07 – about three out of 10 – had teachers not fully credentialed or teaching outside their field of training, according to a 2007 study commissioned by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning in Santa Cruz.

The research, which was done by SRI International, points to a serious problem, said Margaret Gaston, president and executive director of the center.

"In math, it really matters that teachers know the subject matter well," she said.

Locally, Elk Grove Unified reported that all of its middle school math teachers have the proper credentials and formal authorizations to teach math.

In Sacramento City and San Juan, nearly all middle school algebra teachers meet that threshold.

Plenty of teacher training and recruiting lies ahead, but it is a decent starting point, officials from all three districts said.