Original Contribution

Hi, my name is brian sale and I'll be going over my original contribution today.

Um And the main question that I'd like to go over is

should all eighth graders be required

to take algebra algebra one very specifically

to kind of jump right into it.

Right.

What is this project about? Right, driven through my expert observation.

I noticed that my school district pushes algebra for all in the eighth grade. Right?

More than 80% of the general education students

end up retaking algebra in ninth grade.

So two questions that arise are is one

Does taking Algebra in the 8th grade affect college readiness.

And two can students still succeed by not taking algebra in Grade eight

as compared to their peers that do take it in 8th grade.

All right.

So, we're gonna go ahead and jump into this kind of research driven project.

All right.

The first is who is my target audience is going to

be any colleague or educator that's in the field of mathematics.

Right. That also is wondering why there's a push for algebra at these younger ages.

Right? 8th grade, seventh grade.

Right.

This is an online media multimedia presentation.

Um specifically the location of this project concerns my district county,

which is Gwinnett County Public schools.

All right.

This project covers information that concerns the present situation

of mathematics involving algebra across the United States.

Right. So, my district is not the only one that has a push for algebra for All right.

Many, many schools across the nation are pushing for algebra in the eighth grade.

Um, and it is a concerning issue.

All right.

And the question is why why am I talking about this? Right? According to P. J.

S theory of cognitive development, right?

It states that Children begin to understand I

think abstractly from 12 years to adulthood.

Right?

So when they're becoming eighth graders which is about 13 years old

which is only one year from when they started to think abstractly

Right? Or they're able to um think abstractly. Right.

Then we're kind of throwing them into Algebra one

which is all about abstract thinking with variables.

Right? So that is kind of what um what my topic is about today.

Um So there are only one year removed from um starting to think abstractly.

And then schools are forcing students to become

uh to take algebra one in eighth grade.

Right? So students are introducing algebra in eighth grade when they're 13.

Is this too early?

First, full abstract thinking that algebra entails at this age, Right.

That goes back to my original push Original question,

should we be forcing Algebra one onto 8th grade students if they're not ready for it.

Alright.

So I'm gonna go ahead and dive into the research and the data and

we'll go ahead and kind of talk about the implications and conclusions after that.

All right.

So the first thing is the college readiness factor in statistics

right

from here, from Coonan Davis. Right. This information kind of

details the cluster information right? On how students were observed in groups.

Right.

And the cluster that we're really focused on is clustered D,

which is eighth grade students that took algebra one.

All right.

So the percentage of students that kind of broke down

into the section was about 15% of the observed students.

And if you look at the second table right

in cluster D. At the very bottom right? The percentage meeting the A. C. T.

College readiness and when they took it in 11th grade

right was only about 49% of those of that.

15%. All right.

So only about half of the 15% that took um eighth grade

algebra one shows a score of 22 or better on the A.

C. T. Right. So that's not a great percentage.

But compared to the other clusters that

um took pre algebra or transition to algebra or did not take any form of algebra.

Right? Um I mean the percentages are better. Right, but only 49% which is not great.

Right.

So it's not a significant amount of students to show

that the push for algebra is kind of justified.

All right. The second thing is student readiness and growth. Right.

Overall readiness is the lead factor in success and growth. Right.

Eighth grade students who are placed in the correct math flash based on readiness.

Right. Showed results that indicated positive effect of growth. Right.

On the contrary this is according to thurston domina

students who are not ready and placed into an accelerated math course,

which in our case would be algebra one,

right? Show showed diminished returns. Right?

So the growth was not as great as placing them in the correct math class.

Um and uh really it's just the returns are not great.

All right. So when we look at the growth charts, right?

When students are placed in the correct math class, right?

We can see that from kindergarten to first grade, third grade, fifth grade,

eighth grade, right?

The growth is about the same pace,

depending on what correct math class that they're placed in.

Right? And what the focus here from the previous slide is that

if everyone is pushing to algebra right, whether they're ready or not,

uh you know, the graph would not be looking like this, right?

It would probably be a little bit more flat line or maybe even downwards.

It's just that

Student readiness is going to be a big factor in determining

what math class they should be taking in 8th grade.

Alright. And the final thing is a group study, right?

According to Sereno toller and Fuchs, right?

There was two groups of students um that

were observed bright students who passed the regular

math class in eighth grade and then continue to take algebra one in ninth grade.

And the group to consisted of students who did not pass algebra

one in eighth grade and then repeated algebra one in ninth grade,

right?

And the results were actually kind of surprising. Right?

So when we look at the results right directly from Sereno toller and Fuchs right.

Group one who passed regular math in eighth grade was more likely to

pass the ninth grade California algebra test as compared to group two.

All right.

And this goes to the question right,

deciding which students to enroll in eighth grade

algebra is not always a straightforward decision.

Right?

So the push for everyone to take algebra whether they're ready

or not and if they do not pass the test right?

Um they're not likely to pass the ninth grade algebra test is either. Right?

So

this kind of brings us into

our final section. Right? So based off of all this information.

Right. What kind of conclusions and implications can we draw from this data?

All right. The first is that you know according to Conan Davis right.

There is no clear relationship between math sequences and college readiness.

Right.

So just because they are pushed into algebra or into higher mathematics doesn't

mean that there's necessarily relationship with

their college readiness or their A.

C. T. Scores right?

There seems to be an association between

Kindergarten skills and 8th grade math placement.

All right.

So the skills that they learn in elementary

school and that teachers observe right is going to

be one of the key indications that students are

ready for the higher level mathematics or not.

Right.

And there's an indication according to thurston domina that the differentiation

in elementary school might be greater than what we expected,

right?

We kind of assume that kindergartners or third graders or

fifth graders are all receiving the same type of lesson.

Um but really uh

this kind of differentiation uh might be greater

than that we think and that students are

actually receiving um more differentiated activities or lessons

uh than we might actually have believed initially.

So that's something that we could be researching or studying and following up on.

Right.

The second thing is the factors that are tied um to growth. Right?

So key skills, along with the implication from earlier right,

key skills from elementary school, impact algebra, performance, right?

And to specific topics that's been tied to um success in 8th grade math, right?

Is really fractions and proportional reasoning, Right?

So when students first learn about

fractions in elementary school and their proportions

and ratios, right,

these factors uh indicated whether a student might

be successful in eighth grade and higher math,

right?

While certain factors such as social and economic

status uh affects the outcomes to an extent,

right?

And we do know how important that is right, family scenarios, um

backgrounds, genetics, and even race and ethnicity, right?

But one of the key things that serena toland fuse kind of states is that

uh the skills that they learned from

elementary school has a definite relationship,

a definite positive relationship, right?

The skills that they learn fraction proportional reasoning in elementary school

show a strong positive correlation to eighth grade algebra performance.

Right? So that is something to kind of keep in mind.

So it's not necessarily the sequence of mathematics that

affects whether they can be successful.

It's really how well they do in elementary school,

right?

Which brings us into our summary and conclusion. Right?

So these this is all the data and some of the implications that we took from earlier.

Right.

And really we can conclude that the data and studies indicate that

readiness is more important of a factor than socio economic situations.

Readiness begins all the way from kindergarten.

The final question, that kind of concludes all of this.

This whole kind of presentation is why would a whole

school district push for algebra for all for eighth graders,

right?

When readiness should be taken into consideration, Right?

If there are no other options for math, right then,

how can we place students into the correct math course?

Right.

And going back into one of the data.

And um and research right from the two research groups

are students who passed eighth grade non algebra math right,

are more likely to pass the ninth

grade California algebra assessment compared to eighth grade

Algebra one takers who did not pass right.

The top right phrase is going to be one of the

most important details to kind of uh drive decision making.

So

this kind of concludes a little bit of my

um my research and hopefully it has been enlightening and

I opening

but

it is this is what the data shows, right? So aside from my personal beliefs, right,

the data shows that

That students should be placed in correct math classes in 8th grade.

All right.

There should be more options for students um students who

are not ready for algebra one in eighth grade,

right?

Um It's almost like setting them up for failure.

And this is kind of the end of my uh my presentation. So with that, all right.

Here are a few references that I have kind of mentioned right.

Um cognitive development, P. J. S. Uh

Cognitive cognitive development.

A couple of research papers that kind of indicate, you know,

the effects of taking algebra in 8th grade

um and the results of those kind of data research.

Hopefully this has been enlightening and um if you'd like

to go back through the presentation on your own,

um I'll have a link for it right below All right.

Thanks

Original Contribution

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