Why expanding access to algebra is a matter of civil rights

Bob Moses, who helped register Black residents to vote in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement, believed civil rights went beyond the ballot box. To Moses, who was a teacher as well as an activist, math literacy is a civil right: a requirement to earning a living wage in modern society. In 1982, he founded the Algebra Project to ensure that "students at the bottom get the math literacy they need."

As a researcher who studies ways to improve the math experiences of students, I believe a new approach that expands access to algebra may help more students get the math literacy Moses, who died in 2021, viewed as so important. It's a goal districts have long been struggling to meet.

Efforts to improve student achievement in algebra have been taking place for decades. Unfortunately, the math pipeline in the United States is fraught with persistent opportunity gaps. According to the Nation's Report Card—a congressionally mandated project administered by the Department of Education—in 2022 only 29% of U.S. fourth graders and 20% of U.S. eighth graders were proficient in math. Low-income students, students of color and multilingual learners, who tend to have lower scores on math assessments, often do not have the same access as others to qualified teachers, high-quality curriculum and well-resourced classrooms.

A new approach

The Dallas Independent School District—or Dallas ISD—is gaining national attention for increasing opportunities to learn by raising expectations for all students. Following in the footsteps of more than 60 districts in the state of Washington, in 2019 the Dallas ISD implemented an innovative approach of having students be automatically enrolled rather than opt in to honors math in middle school.

Under an opt-in policy, students need a parent or teacher recommendation to take honors math in middle school and Algebra 1 in eighth grade. That policy led both to low enrollment and very little diversity in honors math. Some parents, especially those who are Black or Latino, were not aware how to enroll their students in advanced classes due to a lack of communication in many districts.

In addition, implicit bias, which exists in all demographic groups, may influence teachers' perceptions of the behavior and academic potential of students, and therefore their subsequent recommendations. Public school teachers in the U.S. are far less racially and ethnically diverse than the students they serve.