In America, only 24% of public school students take algebra in 8th grade.

EXPLORE THIS DATA STORY

U.S. Department of Education seal

A Leak in the STEM Pipeline: Taking Algebra Early

NOV 2018 | U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Algebra is the foundation for students' future success in science, technology, engineering, and math. Do they have the opportunity to take it early? Using national data, we look at students' access to and enrollment in Algebra I in the 8th grade.

In today’s era of technological innovation, students need to gain knowledge and skills in order to solve difficult problems, gather and evaluate evidence, make sense of information they study, and be prepared for the careers and challenges of the 21st century and beyond. Students can develop and strengthen these skills by studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects, including computer science (CS). [1] STEM education is embedded in the U.S. Department of Education’s (the Department) mission. Learn more about the focus on STEM education.

Mathematics has been called the “language” of STEM because students need a strong mathematics foundation to succeed in STEM fields and to make sense of STEM-related topics in their daily lives. [2] This story focuses on Algebra I within K-12 education because it is seen as a gatekeeper course: Students normally need to complete Algebra I in order to take higher level mathematics and science courses.[3] Taking the course earlier in their academic careers allows students sufficient time to take the more advanced courses that are often prerequisites for postsecondary STEM majors. However, we see in this data story that only 24 percent of all 8th graders are enrolled in Algebra I. See what the research says about why this matters.

This data story explores both access to and enrollment in Algebra I in K-12 public schools using the 2015–16 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). [4] The data story looks at the types of schools that offer Algebra I classes and further explores the students who actually enroll in these classes, particularly in 8th grade. The Department is encouraging both access to and enrollment in STEM courses. Both aspects are important because, as we will see through the story, even where access to Algebra I classes are available students do not necessarily enroll in them.

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When students take Algebra I matters, but many students do not have early access.

Despite the benefits of early access to Algebra I, we see that only 59 percent of schools that serve 8th graders offer Algebra I. A typical math course sequence would start with Algebra I and continue with Geometry, Algebra II, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus. Students who do not have access to Algebra I until high school are unlikely to have the opportunity to take any Calculus courses before they graduate.

Only 59 percent of schools offer Algebra I in 8th grade. Access to Algebra I in high school grades is more common, but still not universal.

  • Source: Civil Rights Data Collection 2015–16

Since high-level mathematics and high-level science courses are frequently taken together, students who have the opportunity to take more advanced math courses are also more likely to take advanced science courses. When schools don’t offer Algebra I to 8th graders, it can reduce the amount of all STEM courses - not just math courses - they can take before graduation.

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Access to Algebra I in 8th grade is uneven across the country.

Schools that offer Algebra I in 8th grade provide their students with an opportunity to reach more advanced math and science courses in high school. However, there is a wide variation in students’ access to Algebra I in 8th grade based on where the school is located and the type of school that a student attends. Given the importance of early access to Algebra I, the remainder of this story focuses only on 8th grade students and the schools that serve them.

About 30 percent of school districts across the nation did not offer Algebra I in 8th grade.

% of schools offering Algebra I in 8th grade
by school district

  • Source: Civil Rights Data Collection 2015–16

For districts that serve 8th grade students, this map allows us to dig deeper to see the percentage of schools offering Algebra I in 8th grade in each district. Despite wide variations across the country, there are many states across the Northeast and along the Atlantic coast where a high percentage of students had access.

Overall, 80 percent of 8th grade students had access to Algebra I, however access varied widely by the type of school the student attended. Students enrolled in magnet or traditional public schools were more likely to have access to Algebra I in 8th grade.

  • Source: Civil Rights Data Collection 2015–16 and Common Core of Data 2015–16

While 59 percent of schools offered Algebra I in 8th grade, these schools served 80 percent of 8th grade students overall, meaning that four-fifths of all 8th graders attended a school that offered Algebra I. The percentage of 8th graders who had access to Algebra I was largest for students attending magnet schools, with nearly 90 percent of students having access to Algebra I in 8th grade, and lowest for students attending a special education school with nearly 20 percent of students having access to Algebra I in 8th grade. This wide variation shows that students’ access to STEM education can be greatly affected by the type of school they attend.

Differences in early access to algebra by urbanicity were small. Even in rural schools, 75% of 8th graders could take Algebra I.

  • Source: Civil Rights Data Collection 2015–16 and Common Core of Data 2015–16

About 86 percent of students in suburban areas (where the largest percentage of students are enrolled) had access to Algebra I in 8th grade, compared to about 75 percent of students in all other areas.

Next we will explore how access to Algebra I differs from enrollment in Algebra I in 8th grade.

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Enrollment lags behind access. Even when they can take Algebra I, many 8th graders do not.

While access to Algebra I is important, access alone is not enough. Students will not reap the benefits of access to more STEM courses if they are not actually enrolled in the courses.

There are many factors within a school that may affect how many, and which, students are enrolled in Algebra I in 8th grade. For example, some students have access to Algebra I in 7th grade, some students may not be ready to take Algebra I in 8th grade, and others may not be interested in accelerated mathematics. See what the research says about why this matters.

Overall, only 24 percent of all 8th graders were enrolled in Algebra I. Looking further at the data suggests a complicated story of opportunity for different types of students.

  • Source: Civil Rights Data Collection 2015–16 and Common Core of Data 2015–16

Previously, we saw that 80 percent of 8th grade students had access to Algebra I in 8th grade; however, only 24 percent of 8th grade students across the country were actually enrolled in the course. Furthermore, not all students were enrolled at the same rate. Students who are Asian were the most likely to be enrolled in Algebra I in 8th grade with 34 percent of all 8th graders who are Asian enrolled in the course. Comparatively, only 12 percent of 8th graders who are black enrolled in Algebra I in 8th grade. In addition, a slightly higher percentage of female students (25 percent) than male students (22 percent) were enrolled in Algebra I in 8th grade. See what the research says about why this matters.

We also see geographic trends in where 8th graders are enrolled in Algebra I across the country.

Across the country, there were 75 districts that had all 8th graders enrolled in Algebra I.

% of 8th graders who took Algebra I in 8th grade
by school district

  • Source: Civil Rights Data Collection 2015–16 and Common Core of Data 2015–16

Although over 8,000 districts offered access to Algebra I, in almost 90 percent of districts, less than half of all 8th graders were enrolled in the course. We also see differences in enrollment by state, with Minnesota and Pennsylvania, for example, standing out as states with broad enrollment. Learn more about how States are focusing on Algebra I.

We know that a strong STEM education is a path to successful career and we know that the need for STEM knowledge and skills will continue to grow in the future. [5] Taking Algebra I before high school, such as in 8th grade, can set students up for a strong foundation of STEM education and open the door for various college and career options.

The data explored in this story highlight both successes and areas for improvement, as school leaders, teachers and parents across the country, work to ensure equal access to a strong STEM education for all students.


Civil Rights Data Collection

The data explored in this story comes from the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). Since 1968, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has conducted the CRDC to collect data on key education and civil rights issues in our nation's public schools. The CRDC collects a variety of information including student enrollment and educational programs and services, most of which is disaggregated by race/ethnicity, sex, limited English proficiency, and disability. The CRDC informs the Office of Civil Rights’ overall strategy for administering and enforcing the civil rights statutes for which it is responsible. The CRDC collects data only from public schools and does not include data from private schools. To directly download the CRDC data files, click here (34MB).

Data Exclusion Rules

Data included in this story may differ slightly from other published reports due to certain data decisions. For the purposes of these analyses, schools with incomplete or inconsistent data values were excluded as follows:

1. Less than 1% of schools were excluded from all analyses because they reported inconsistent data for Algebra I enrollment for the same grade level.

2. An additional 6% of schools serving 8th grade students were excluded from all enrollment analyses due to missing 8th grade enrollment data or the 8th grade Algebra I enrollment count being larger than the 8th grade overall enrollment.

3. Fewer than 10 schools were excluded from the enrollment by urbanicity (locale) analysis due to missing data.

4. Schools with an 8th grade Algebra I enrollment count larger than the 8th grade enrollment for either the male or female subgroup (1% of schools serving 8th-grade students) were excluded from the enrollment by gender analysis.

5. Schools with an 8th grade Algebra I enrollment count larger than the 8th grade enrollment for at least one race/ethnicity subgroup (16% of schools serving 8th grade students) were excluded from the enrollment by race/ethnicity analysis.

References

[1] Hadani, H. S., & Rood, E. (2018). The roots of STEM success: Changing early learning experiences to build lifelong thinking skills . Sausalito, CA: Center for Childhood Creativity at the Bay Area Discovery Museum.

[3] Noonan, R. (2017). STEM jobs: 2017 Update. Washington, DC: Office of the Chief Economist, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.

[4] The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) , conducted by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) under the U.S. Department of Education, gathers information from our nation’s public schools.

[5] Noonan, R. (2017). STEM jobs: 2017 Update. Washington, DC: Office of the Chief Economist, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.