Why EPISD plans to enroll all eighth graders into Algebra 1

El Paso Independent School District middle schoolers will be automatically enrolled in an advanced math class starting in August, with the plan of getting nearly all eighth graders enrolled in Algebra 1 by the 2025-26 school year.

This comes as school districts throughout the state ramp up advanced math class enrollment for middle schoolers to comply with a new law intended to get more eighth graders enrolled in Algebra 1 — a course most Texas students have taken in ninth grade.

Senate Bill 2124, passed during the 2023 legislative session, requires schools to enroll students who performed in the top 40% in their fifth-grade math assessment into advanced math in sixth grade starting the 2024-25 school year, to prepare them for the high school level course.

The law also requires schools to track performance and enrollment for students in advanced math classes, and allows parents to opt their children out of taking them.

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EPISD plans to go beyond the state’s requirements, hoping to give more students the opportunity to take calculus in high school — a class that is usually required to get a college degree in math or science.

“If students don’t take algebra in the eighth grade, it’s very difficult to get to calculus by their senior year. The benefit of having everybody exposed to algebra in eighth grade is that it opens that door to more advanced math classes,” Jason Long, EPISD’s executive director of advanced academics,  told El Paso Matters.

Still, some worry EPISD’s goal may take more than one school year to accomplish successfully.

“They’re not going to be ready for it. It’s going to be setting kids up for failure,” El Paso American Federation of Teachers President Ross Moore told El Paso Matters.

Moore said he was not aware of EPISD’s plan before being approached by El Paso Matters.

Roughly 30% of eighth graders in the district took Algebra 1 during the 2023-24 school year, Long said.

Meanwhile, some El Paso school districts have already reached or surpassed the state’s goal.

About 40% of eighth graders attending the Ysleta Independent School District took Algebra 1 during the 2023-24 school year and expects to reach 50% the following year, YISD Chief Academic Officer Brenda Chacon said.

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The Socorro Independent School District had 96% of its eighth graders enrolled in Algebra 1, according to Texas Education Agency data compiled by the El Paso nonprofit Council on Regional Economic Expansion and Educational Development — or CREEED.

The district aims to have all its students take the class in middle school with exceptions for those who transferred from another district or were opted out by their parents.

For the past two school years, SISD had the top five schools with the highest eighth-grade Algebra 1 STAAR test scores in El Paso County.

These include Hernando, Montwood, Ensor, Antwine and Puentes middle schools for the 2023-24 school year.

SISD’s assistant superintendent of schools, Enrique Herrera, credited the district’s decade-long initiative to get more students into advanced math for this accomplishment.

“A lot of the success has happened because of how we’ve coordinated our curriculum,” Herrera told El Paso Matters. “For the most part, we try to prep sixth graders with honors math, unless parents want to opt out of it, but they start getting that rigor in sixth grade. They’re really doubling up in seventh and eighth grade, which then prepares them for the algebra that they’ll experience as eighth graders.”

Meanwhile, EPISD and the Clint Independent School District had the bottom five performing campuses: Bobby Joe Hill and Tinajero pre-K to eighth-grade schools, and Estrada, Guillen and Horizon middle schools.

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How EPISD plans to implement Algebra 1 for eighth graders

EPISD already offered Algebra 1 and advanced math in middle school, which it calls honors courses, to certain students.

“All the pre-K through eighth-grade schools had it, but it was either at a parent’s request or a teacher’s recommendation,” Long said.

Now EPISD plans to reach the state’s 40% goal and will enroll all eighth graders at seven of its schools into Algebra 1 starting in August, as part of a pilot program.

This includes Brown, Canyon Hills, Charles, Guillen and Wiggs middle schools, and the Bobby Joe Hill and Tinajero pre-K to eighth-grade schools.

“These pilot campuses already started working with their seventh-grade students to prep them for the eighth-grade algebra,” Long said.

Long said the district plans to have all its eighth graders take algebra by the 2025-26 school year, with exceptions for students who transferred from another school district and were not enrolled in advanced math the previous year.

To ensure all students are prepared for these classes, Long said students who struggle with algebra may have to take two math courses in what’s called a double block – two periods that provide more instructional time.

SISD implemented a similar schedule that required students to take an intervention class along with their regular math course.

EPISD students also will be able to get help during an intervention and enrichment period known as What I Need, or WIN.

Long said the period works “almost like an elective” that allows students who are struggling with their classes to get extra support.

EPISD’s WIN period gained controversy when it was first started in the 2023-24 school year after the district in order to implement it eliminated a policy requiring elementary school students to take physical education daily.

The debate over eighth-grade algebra

As lawmakers and educators around the country look into ways to close achievement gaps in education, a debate has brewed about when students should take algebra and who has access to advanced math classes.

Some states have drastically different approaches.

In Texas, lawmakers, education advocates and business leaders have pushed for more students to take part in advanced classes to prepare more students to pursue college and enter STEM careers.

“Eighth-grade algebra is the gateway to taking advanced math in high school. Taking college-level math courses in high school is predictive of higher rates of postsecondary success,” said Gabe Grantham, policy advisor for Texas 2036.

The organization is a nonpartisan Dallas-based think tank that uses research to inform public policy changes.

Students who take college-level math courses in high school are six times more likely to complete college compared to their peers. Completing Algebra 1 in eighth grade has also been linked to higher wages.

In California, lawmakers decided students would need to wait until high school to take Algebra 1 in hopes of addressing inequities in education.

“We know that students of color, primarily black and brown students, and students from low-income backgrounds have lower test scores because the opportunities that they have available to them are not as good as their peers. And so because their test scores are lower they’re going to be less likely to be given the opportunity to take algebra in eighth grade, or if they are pushed into algebra early, they might not be as prepared for it as some of their peers,” Andrew McEachin, senior research director for the Educational Testing Service Research Institute, told El Paso Matters.

ETS develops and administers educational assessments, including the California High School Exit Exam.

McEachin agreed that eighth-grade algebra can serve as a gateway course to get students into college, but noted schools need to start early to ensure students are prepared for it.

“The framing should be around a successful opportunity for students, not so much that they just added or took it. What that means is that they’ve been set up for success for that course in eighth grade, and that likely is going to start from kindergarten or the first time they entered the district,” McEachin said when asked about EPISD’s goal.

Research conducted by the E3 Alliance found that the bottom 60% of performers in fifth-grade math were less successful in completing Algebra I in eighth grade.

E3 Alliance is a Central Texas based collaborative non-profit that aims to transform education through data driven initiatives.

Students who do not demonstrate proficiency in assessments should not be placed in advanced math until they receive the proper support, said Jennifer Cavazos Saenz, E3 Alliance senior director of communications and policy.

“Texas school districts that have implemented this approach have seen dramatic drops in student performance and outcomes,” Cavazos Saenz said.

Moore agreed it may take more preparation.

“It’s not ready unless they have good solid backing, they do it in an incremental basis, there is a training plan, personnel aspects have been brought out, and teachers aren’t being told on the first day back, ‘You’re not teaching eighth-grade math anymore, you’re teaching algebra,’” Moore said.

EPISD leaders said they have implemented a comprehensive approach “which includes tutoring for students and additional support for teachers to ensure success for all.”

“The district is fully staffed with highly qualified and certified teachers who are eager to kickstart this new opportunity. EPISD stands firm in its commitment to supporting teachers and students guaranteeing the success of this Algebra for All offering,” EPISD spokesperson Ernie Chacon said in a statement.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Why EPISD plans to enroll all eighth graders into Algebra 1