Why Is Algebra a Big Deal?
Algebra is the "gatekeeper" that lets people into rewarding careers and keeps others out. Here's how you can help your child succeed in this important class.
It is frequently called the "gatekeeper" subject. It is used by photographers, architects, upholsterers and just about everyone in a high-tech career. It is simply a civil right, says Robert Moses, a veteran of the civil rights movement.
Basic algebra is the first in a sequence of higher-level math classes that students need to succeed. Because many students fail to get a solid math foundation, an alarming number of them are graduating from high school unprepared for either college or work. Many are taking remedial math in college, which makes getting a degree a longer, costlier process than it is for their more prepared classmates. And it means they're less likely to complete a college-level math course. For middle school students and their parents, the message is clear: It's easier to learn the math now than to try to relearn it later.
What Makes Algebra So Important?
The first year of algebra is the prerequisite for all higher level math: geometry, algebra II, trigonometry and calculus. According to a study by the ACT, students who take algebra I, geometry, algebra II and one additional high-level math course are much more likely to succeed in college math. (To read this PDF file, you need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download for free here.)
Algebra is not just for the college-bound. Students headed straight from high school to the work force will need the same math skills as college freshmen, the ACT found. This ACT study looked at occupations that don't require a college degree but pay wages high enough to support a family of four. Researchers found that math and reading skill levels required to work as an electrician, plumber or upholsterer were comparable to those needed to succeed in college.
Algebra is, in short, the gateway to success in the 21st century.
What's more, your child develops abstract reasoning when he makes the transition from concrete arithmetic to the symbolic language of algebra. That helps him become an abstract thinker, a benefit that will carry over into his study of other subjects.
When Should Your Child Take Algebra?
Students typically take algebra in the eighth or ninth grade. The benefit of starting the sequence of high-level math classes in eighth grade is that if your child takes the PSAT as a high school sophomore, she will have completed geometry. By the time she's ready to take the SAT or ACT as a high school junior, she will have completed a second year of algebra. Both of these college admissions tests have questions based on algebra II.
There's a growing movement to have students take algebra in seventh grade. That may work well for students who are motivated, mature and prepared to tackle it. But many seventh-graders aren't, math educators say.
"Some kids get turned off of math because they start math too early," says Francis "Skip" Fennell, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the nation's leading organization of math teachers.
Parents, he said, need to "make sure you ask yourself, 'Is this move for you or for your child?'"
Fennell recommends talking to your child's current teacher to help you assess her readiness to advance. The goal is for your child to learn algebra well and keep her engaged in math, not push her through the curriculum as quickly as possible.
How to Evaluate Your Child's Math Program
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has spelled out three math "focal points" for children in each grade, from kindergarten through eighth. Fennell said the council developed this short list because state standards vary widely and some of them include more than a hundred objectives for each grade. While the NCTM wrote these focal points for teachers and other educators, the list also offer parents a way to understand what their children should be focusing on.
"If my child is in Grade 6, I know a focus will be fractions," says Fennell. "That will take up more time than, say, adding whole numbers, which he should know how to do by now."
W. Stephen Wilson is a Johns Hopkins math professor who teaches freshman calculus and is a former senior advisor for mathematics in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. He also reviewed the states' K-12 math standards for the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, and he has strong opinions about which offer the best guidance. He called California's math standards "the gold standard." Wilson recommends that parents who want to make sure their students are getting prepared for high school and college compare the topics in their students' textbooks to the California standards.
"Odds are, if you can't do that easily then there is something very wrong," he says.
Look for Homework Clues
Wilson offers this advice to parents trying to evaluate their students' math instruction:
"If a student isn't bringing home work that requires lots of manipulation and lots of word problems, then there is probably a problem."
Fennell suggests talking to your child and the math teacher about how homework is used. You may learn a lot from the answers if you ask:
- Are homework assignments corrected and returned in a timely way?
- Is homework reviewed in class so students can learn from their mistakes?
- Does the teacher change the pace or direction of his instruction, based on the feedback he gets in homework?
You don't need to be a mathematician to ask good questions about the content of your child's class, Fennell says. "Ask the teacher 'What is the math? Is it a repeat of math that should have already been mastered? When my child finishes this year, will he be ready for high school math?'"
Bill Moore directs the Transition Mathematics Project in Washington state, which is working to better prepare students for the transition to college math. He summed up what middle school students need to get out of math this way:
"Students need to have a very solid foundation of basic procedural skills that really make problem-solving more fluid. There's a fundamental set of stuff that just has to be memorized, and there there's a sense of numbers, a sense of what's a reasonable answer. That's particularly important with the use of calculators. In some cases, in the elementary grades, they've been used as a crutch. Students go straight to the calculator and if the calculator says it's right, then it must be right."
Look at How Calculators Are Used
Talk to your child's math teacher about how calculators are used in the classroom. Debate has raged for years over whether students are relying too much on calculators and failing to learn the standard algorithms - addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
But there does seem to be general agreement with the view expressed by Fennell: "The calculator is an instructional tool. It should support but not supplant anything. You don't use it for 6 x 7."
October 2006
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Related Links
- The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' "focal points" detail the three most important math topics for each grade level, from K-8.
- Civil rights activist Robert Moses founded the Algebra Project with the goal of instructing more children in higher level math.
- The American Diploma Project includes 22 states working to prepare every high school graduate for college or work. The project breaks down college readiness skills into four: number sense and numerical operations; algebra; geometry; and data interpretation, statistics and probability, with examples of each.
- Math.com offers a quick refresher for parents who want to help their students with math.
