Latest news with #AlgebraI
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
At least half of Hilliard students exempt from some final exams under state test policy
HILLIARD, Ohio (WCMH) — Hilliard City Schools students who score well on their state tests do not have to take final exams, a district spokesperson confirmed. District announcements show the program began as an incentive for students to do well on Ohio's state tests. Any student who got a proficient score, or 700 and higher, in Algebra I, Biology, English II, Geometry, U.S. History and U.S. Government could choose to be exempted from that course's end-of-year exam. According to state records, this policy would exempt more than half of the students from these exams. Ohio has five levels of performance for its state exams: limited, basic, proficient, accelerated and advanced. Ohio Department of Education Press Secretary Lacey Snoke said students must score competently enough on state tests — a 684 or higher — to graduate. DEI law cosponsor calls Ohio State's Juneteenth guidelines an 'intentional overreaction' 'Ohio's State Tests provide valuable insights into how well our students are growing in the knowledge and skills outlined in Ohio's Learning Standards,' Snoke said. 'They also help guide and strengthen future teaching, ensuring that we are preparing our students for long-term success in school, careers and life.' Snoke said districts have control over their daily operations, including things like final exams, so Hilliard is able to offer incentives like this one. According to state data, the policy would exempt more than half of Hilliard's students from these exams. Hilliard students had their worst scores in Geometry, with 53.8% of students earning a proficient score. In the 2023-2024 school year, as many as 80% of students could have skipped their final exams thanks to the incentive. Hilliard scores better on these tests than most districts, but it lags behind similar districts in its scoring. The state identifies similar school districts for easy comparison, and Hilliard is grouped in with other suburban schools with low student poverty rates and large student bodies. The state considers Worthington, Gahanna-Jefferson, Pickerington, Dublin and Westerville similar districts. A Hilliard spokesperson said the incentive was common practice among central Ohio schools. At Columbus City Schools, district policy exempts most students with an 'A' in a course from the final, and many districts — including Hilliard — exempt students from end-of-year exams if they take a relevant AP test. South-Western City Schools teachers, board clash over contract However, none of the five central Ohio districts that the state qualifies as 'similar' to Hilliard appear to offer the same exemption. Gahanna allows individual instructors to choose if they will have an exam and don't have an adjusted schedule. Westerville requires exams at the end of each semester, exempting only seniors in good standing with an 80% or higher in the class. Dublin City Schools requires teachers to administer exams at the end of the semester, and all students are required to take them unless they have a specific approved exemption. 'Examinations of this type are excellent tools for determining the degree of knowledge obtained from a course,' Dublin schools said. 'They also provide excellent preparation for the type of examinations encountered in higher education.' Hilliard students who scored proficient or higher on the state test but had a near-failing grade in the class were 'highly encouraged' to take their exams as a chance to improve their grades, but not required. Any student who wanted to take their final exam was allowed to. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Texas releases 2025 STAAR end-of-course results, shows mixed progress
The Brief Mixed Performance Across Subjects: The 2025 STAAR EOC results show varied student performance in core subjects, with improvements in Algebra I and Biology, but declines in English I, English II, and U.S. History compared to 2024. Focus on Academic Progress: Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath highlighted progress in math and science, while acknowledging the need for continued efforts to meet academic expectations for all students. Legislative Developments: A proposed bill to replace the STAAR with smaller tests throughout the year failed to advance, despite support in the State House of Representatives. Austin - The Texas Education Agency on Tuesday released the Spring 2025 results for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) high school End-of-Course (EOC) exams, offering a mixed picture of student performance across core subjects. The assessments, taken by high school students across the state, measure readiness in Algebra I, Biology, English I, English II, and U.S. History. According to the agency, this year's results show modest changes compared to 2024 — with gains in some areas and declines in others. By the numbers Algebra I: 47% met grade level (up from 45% in 2024) Biology: 62% met grade level (up from 57%) English I: 51% met grade level (down from 54%) English II: 56% met grade level (down from 60%) U.S. History: 68% met grade level (down from 69%) What they're saying Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath acknowledged the progress, especially in math and science, but noted that more work remains to ensure all students are meeting academic expectations. "Texas students and educators continue to work hard to demonstrate academic excellence," Morath said in a statement. "At the same time, we also recognize that too many students are still not where they need to be academically." State officials noted that Biology scores improved across all student groups, including students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, those receiving special education services, and emergent bilingual learners. The STAAR EOC exams are designed to evaluate whether high school students have mastered the skills and content necessary to move forward and ultimately graduate prepared for college, a career, or military service. In May the State House of Representatives passed a bill that would have replaced the statewide exam with three smaller tests given throughout the school year. Supporters claimed it would give teachers faster results and reduce testing pressure. Despite the momentum in the House, the bill failed to advance before the end of session. Individual student scores are now available through local school portals and using a unique access code provided by each student's school. Full statewide and campus-level data is available through the Texas Assessment Research Portal. Results for STAAR grades 3–8 will be released on June 17. The Source The Texas Education Agency on Tuesday released the Spring 2025 results for the STAAR high school End-of-Course exams.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Texas high school students' STAAR scores show gains in STEM fields, struggles in reading and literacy
Partial results from the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exam released on Tuesday show that high school students made gains in algebra and biology, which education policy analysts celebrated as a step in the right direction as Texas tries to shift toward a more STEM-focused workforce. But the data also shows students continue to struggle in English and U.S. history, which experts said underscored the need for a renewed focus on reading and literacy. The STAAR exam gauges if high-schoolers are meeting grade-level proficiency in those subjects and if they need additional help. The students who took the standardized test this past spring and met grade-level expectations in Algebra I was 47%, up two percentage points from last year. 'Success in Algebra I is super predictive of post-secondary attainment, credential attainment, and post-secondary success, and so therefore long-term wages,' said Gabriel Grantham, a policy adviser with Texas 2036. During the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers approved Senate Bill 2124, a bill aimed at increasing math proficiency, but it's unclear how those efforts might have contributed to students' gain in algebra this year. Research shows that student enrollment in high-level math courses is directly connected to post-secondary career advancements. This year, the percentage of students who met grade-level expectations in biology went up to 62%, five percentage points higher than last year. Economically disadvantaged students, students receiving special education services and emergent bilingual students, also saw small gains in the subject. But the results also mean that nearly half of students taking biology are still not meeting grade level, Grantham said. 'We are always excited about growth, but we always have to take stock of where we actually are,' he said. 'We want to be No. 1 in education and this is kind of like the line in the sand. It says, 'OK, we need to move forward and we need to move upward from here.'' Students meeting grade level in English I was down to 51%, three percentage points lower than last year. Additionally, the percentage of students meeting grade level in English II dropped to 56%, four percentage points lower than last year. High school students that took the U.S. history also saw a slight decline in grade-level proficiency down one percentage point from 69% last year. During this year's legislative session,. lawmakers tried to scrap the STAAR test but were unsuccessful. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have long criticized the standardized test for taking valuable instructional time away from teachers. STAAR results for grades 3-8 are expected to be released next week. Disclosure: Texas 2036 has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. Big news: 20 more speakers join the TribFest lineup! New additions include Margaret Spellings, former U.S. secretary of education and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center; Michael Curry, former presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church; Beto O'Rourke, former U.S. Representative, D-El Paso; Joe Lonsdale, entrepreneur, founder and managing partner at 8VC; and Katie Phang, journalist and trial lawyer. Get tickets. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Opinion: In Algebra 1, New Understanding of an Old Problem Can Support Students
Schools are often described as engines of opportunity — places where students gain the skills and knowledge needed to build their futures. But for too many young people, that engine stalls before it even starts. One critical inflection point is the completion of Algebra I. It can determine whether students move forward or fall behind, shaping not just their academic trajectory but also their future economic mobility. For students who pass Algebra I — typically in 9th grade — a door opens to higher-level math, college readiness, and stronger career prospects. For those who don't, that door can remain closed. In fact, students who fail Algebra I are four times more likely to drop out of high school than their peers who pass. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter According to the 2024 NAEP scores, only 28% of students were proficient in 8th grade math. That sobering number underscores the challenge: Students are entering Algebra I already behind, grappling with unfinished learning from prior grades. Without effective intervention, the gap only grows wider. To better understand how to support students in mastering Algebra I, TNTP and New Classrooms analyzed three years of data from more than 2,000 students who used Teach to One Roadmaps, an online learning platform developed by New Classrooms, alongside their regular Algebra I classroom. The findings, detailed in the report, Unlocking Algebra: What the Data Tells Us About Helping Students Catch Up, offer important insights into how students build algebraic understanding over time and which strategies are most effective in helping them succeed. The study found that students make the most progress when rebuilding foundational knowledge is paired with opportunities to learn new content. That requires focusing on high-leverage, pre-requisite skills rather than trying to fill every gap. Intervention supports like tutoring must be tightly aligned to what students already know and what they are ready to learn next. And instructional coherence is essential. Students need consistent, connected learning experiences — from core instruction to other interventions — to truly accelerate. Related The majority of students in the study began knowing only about one-third of the algebra-related concepts and skills from prior grades. But the data also showed that students can catch up — especially when instruction helps them both rebuild key foundations and continue learning new, grade-level material. They don't need to stop moving forward while trying to recover everything they've missed. The research found that instruction was significantly more effective when it targeted the key predecessor skills that unlock access to new Algebra I content, rather than attempting to remediate everything. For example, when students are trying to learn 'the average rate of change,' the key predecessor skills with the greatest likelihood of ensuring success are the ability to calculate the slope between two points, to construct functions to model a linear relationship, and to determine function rules from tables. When key skills like these are not already mastered, students were found to succeed in only one out of 10 attempts. But when they are explicitly addressed, students' success rate jumped to 58%. The takeaway: Students don't need to catch up on all unfinished learning to move forward. Precision matters more than breadth. Instead of broad, generalized approaches, educators can accelerate learning by focusing on the skills that matter most for unlocking new content and that build on each student's existing knowledge. Over the course of a school year, aligning interventions with core instruction also made a measurable difference. This targeted strategy helped students learn nearly twice as many new algebra concepts by year end. That progress mattered: Students who had mastered twice as many concepts were significantly more likely to score proficient on their state's Algebra I assessment. These insights point to a larger truth: System-level instructional coherence is essential. Students thrive when their learning experiences—from core instruction to tutoring to other supports—are aligned, purposeful, and grounded in a shared understanding of what success looks like. In Algebra I, for example, instructional coherence ensures that the foundational skills students practice in tutoring or support programs directly connect to what's being taught in class, so every learning opportunity builds toward mastering key algebra concepts rather than feeling disconnected or repetitive. If schools are to serve as true engines of opportunity, all parts of the system—curriculum, instruction, and intervention—must work together. That's especially true when it comes to Algebra I, the gateway course that often determines who accelerates and who stalls out. Coherence isn't just about what happens in the math classroom; it requires alignment across grade levels, teacher teams, and entire systems. Related When selecting intervention solutions, district leaders should ask key questions: How does the platform determine what each student is ready to learn? Does it tailor practice to individual needs? The most effective tools meet students where they are and guide them towards mastery, with a clear focus on skills that unlock Algebra I. At the state level, much of the recent focus has rightly been on ensuring rigorous classroom curricula. But few states offer clear guidance on what high-quality intervention should look like. This is a missed opportunity. State leaders can leverage existing curriculum review processes to advocate for coherent intervention tools: ones that are aligned to classroom instruction, address unfinished learning, and build towards grade-level content. Algebra I is more than just a math class. It's a defining moment in a student's academic life and a powerful measure of whether the school system is delivering on its promise of opportunity. Right now, too many students are stalling before they ever get a chance to accelerate. But we now have a clearer roadmap for helping them catch up—and keep up. The tools are here. The knowledge is here. The opportunity is waiting. Let's make sure the engine starts.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Untangling Who Should Take Algebra — And When
When it comes to access, readiness and placement in Algebra I, states and districts across the country have ping-ponged between extremes for decades, often without clear evidence to back up drastic and frequent policy shifts. A new report attempts to untangle the policy pendulum swings and provide states and districts with concrete evidence for what's most effective. But to really understand what's at stake, consider a history lesson – more a cautionary tale, really – set in San Francisco schools. Nationally, only 16% of eighth-grade students took Algebra I in the mid-80s — and as one might imagine, the well-resourced schools that offered the advanced math subject in middle school overwhelmingly catered to wealthy white students. The 90s was marked by efforts to address those inequities and increase access to Algebra I, which was seen as a gateway to academic success and college access but one that often locked out marginalized students. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Swept up in California's 'Algebra for All' push in the late 1990s, San Francisco schools shifted away from placing high-achieving students on advanced math tracts and attempted to enroll all eighth-graders in Algebra I. But the results were lackluster at best. By significantly increasing enrollment, including students who were not academically prepared for the subject, achievement plummeted. Some research even suggests a harmful backsliding for the lowest-performers, who often had to repeat the course. So, San Francisco course-corrected once again. In 2015, they rolled out new and rigorous math standards, but took away the ability for students to take Algebra I in eighth-grade, making it a ninth-grade subject. Then, after a wave of criticism from parents fearing their kids weren't being challenged or properly prepared for more advanced mathematics, they reintroduced Algebra I to eighth-graders this year, piloting three different ways of offering the subject in middle school to pinpoint the most effective way to do so. San Francisco isn't alone in its Algebra I pendulum swings — not by a long shot. Today, the subject has become a bellwether for equity and college access, and unexpectedly, one of the most hotly debated topics in American education. With district and school leaders clamoring for more meaningful guidance about who should take the class, when, and with what types of support, a new report from EdResearch for Action and the Annenberg Institute at Brown University tackles those issues head-on. 'Over the past few decades, the research that has come out of those policy swings — from everyone should take it in eighth grade to no, we should make everyone take it in ninth grade — has kind of shown that that one-size-fits-all uniform push to algebra one is not meeting the needs of all students,' says Elizabeth Huffaker, a fellow at Stanford University's Center for Education Policy Analysis and author of the report. 'A lot of states and districts are experimenting with new models, and we wanted to bring to bear what we do know as states and districts try to do that.' Here's what the report found and what state, district and school leaders should examine as they think about the most effective ways to set students up for success with Algebra I and beyond. In deciding who should take algebra, districts should attempt to strike a balance between expanding early access to the subject in 8th grade and ensuring students are academically ready. The goal should be to broaden participation while preventing course failure, disengagement, and long-term setbacks. Research shows that long-term academic success is higher when students are enrolled in Algebra I based on academic readiness rather than grade level. But whether schools should embrace acceleration among students with uncertain readiness depends on the level of academic support a district can provide as well as the proportion of students considered borderline ready. Enrolling too many students who aren't fully ready can be disruptive and ineffective, whereas a small number who are also bolstered by tutoring programs, for example, would likely be successful. Related Students who are not academically ready need significant support to be successful. When it comes to making placement decisions, research shows the best way to do so is with a combination of test scores, rather than relying solely on subjective referrals or a single test score. This has been shown to improve participation and achievement, especially for historically underserved students. For example, when schools in Wake County, North Carolina, replaced subjective placement factors with a cutoff score based on multiple academic measures, it led to increased enrollment, especially among Black, Hispanic, and low-income students. 'Tracking,' the practice of assigning students to courses based on their proficiency level, is controversial since it assumes students have fixed academic abilities. That's a narrative that's particularly harmful for low-income students and students of color who come into K-12 with far less access to advanced coursework. Yet the practice is widespread, especially in older grades and for placement in advanced classes: Nationally, about 25% of 4th graders and 75% of 8th graders attend schools that use tracking. Supporters argue that it improves learning by targeting instruction to students' individual needs, and research seems to bear that out, with classrooms grouped by proficiency levels allowing more targeted instruction. However, research also shows that tracking tends to benefit higher achievers while also widening achievement gaps and increasing segregation. Moreover, students in lower tracks are typically aware of their placement, which can hurt confidence, motivation and effort. Meanwhile, mixed-proficiency classrooms offer all students access to rigorous coursework, but risk discouraging lower achievers by introducing material that's too advanced while also slowing progress for high achievers because the material isn't advanced enough. And while differentiated instruction can benefit all students, effectively supporting a wide range of academic abilities requires teachers to have advanced skills. The best approach is to provide extra support to students who aren't quite ready for algebra through tutoring, offering two periods of math each day (also known as 'double-dose') or providing summer programs, research shows. Tutoring, especially when delivered in small groups, multiple times per week, and during the school day, is one of the most effective short-term and long-term academic interventions. A meta-analysis of 21 randomly controlled trials found that math tutoring generates about a 10 percentile learning gain, on average, which is a large effect for an educational intervention. 'Double-dose' algebra gives students two math periods a day and has been shown to improve outcomes. When Chicago Public Schools required underprepared 9th-grade students to take two periods of algebra instead of one, student test scores increased. It also led to longer-run gains in college entrance exam scores, high school graduation rates, and college enrollment rates. Research also shows that summer bridge programs help students build the study skills and confidence needed for success in algebra. One 19-day Algebra I bridge program in California raised the share of algebra-ready students from 12% to 29%. Increasing enrollment in Algebra I in middle school involves nuanced decision-making that includes evaluating the readiness of students and educators and the capacity of the district to provide support. What districts should avoid, the research shows, are policy shifts that either delay Algebra I for all students or accelerate them without strong, integrated support, and enrollment policies that rely on one static test score or subjective teacher recommendations. 'There should be an emphasis on raising the floor, not lowering the ceiling when we're thinking about balancing access and achievement,' Huffaker says. Related Most recently, districts have been turning to auto-enrollment policies, which allow students to opt out and support those who may not be academically ready with either tutoring or a second math class. Research shows that it increases participation and completion rates, particularly among underrepresented students. Bottom line, Huffaker says, is that there are always going to be trade-offs when it comes to how and when to introduce Algebra I. 'We always say that supported acceleration is a great way to get all or most of your students on an advanced pathway. And it sounds really great to have everyone kind of on that early Algebra I one trajectory. But districts face significant resource constraints and staffing. So I think our real goal here was to provide a framework where districts could come in with their local priorities and resources mapped and see what's realistic for them.'
