San Francisco eighth graders will have the option to take Algebra 1 next year after it was pulled from the school district’s middle school curriculum in 2014, and a yearslong campaign sought to restore it.
At nearly midnight on Tuesday night, the San Francisco school board voted to approve a plan to offer the class as an elective to all eighth graders who wish to take it, in addition to the standard math class, Math 8.
Students who meet the academic requirements may opt out of Math 8 altogether and head straight to Algebra 1.
The class was pulled 12 years ago in an attempt to reform middle school mathematics to promote equity and reduce racial disparities in math.
But, instead, a 2023 Stanford study found it had the opposite effect: Participation in AP math classes in high school dropped by 15 percent, and wide racial gaps in math test scores remained.
Outrage ensued. A non-binding proposition was brought to the Board of Supervisors last year, pushing the district to reinstate the class, and was signed by 10 of 11 supervisors. A petition circled through parent groups, garnering hundreds of signatures, and one parent group even lodged a lawsuit against the district in 2023.
In 2024, nearly 82 percent of voters approved a nonbinding measure to restore algebra.
For more than a decade, the San Francisco Unified School District has been one of just a handful of Bay Area districts that do not offer Algebra 1 in middle school. Over the past three years, the district has promised to reinstate the course.
The rollout, parents have said, has been slow.
The district posed several problems that could get in the way of students and solving the quadratic equation: Namely, that eighth grade teachers haven’t taught algebra in years, that introducing complicated math problems too quickly could lead to a high re-take levels once students enter high school, and that taking Math 8 and Algebra 1 at the same time, as the district initially proposed, would force students to drop an elective if they wanted to take Algebra 1.
In February 2024, the school board agreed to launch a two-year pilot program at 10 schools across the district to test various ways to reintroduce Algebra 1 to middle school students. On Tuesday night, one of the three professors who authored the 2023 Stanford study, Thomas Dee, shared their findings.
- At one school, the K-8 Rooftop School, SFUSD tested a “compression” model, fast-tracking math curriculum in eighth grade to include algebra concepts in Math 8.
- In three other schools, A.P. Giannini, Roosevelt Middle School and Alice Fong Yu Alternative School, all students were automatically enrolled in Algebra 1 instead of Math 8.
- In six other middle schools, Algebra 1 was instead offered as an elective, in addition to the required Math 8.
Schools that offered Algebra 1 as an optional elective, the professors found, had by far the best results.
While more than 19 percent of students who were automatically enrolled in Algebra 1 in eighth grade retook the course in ninth grade, only 9 percent of students who took the course as an elective were forced to retake the course the following year.
The study also found that attendance, as well as test scores in ninth grade, improved significantly.
“For the past two years at my school, about half of our eighth graders have taken both Math 8 and Algebra 1,” said eighth grade math teacher Paul Gallagher, speaking at public comment.
“I had doubts going in, but what I’ve seen matches Stanford’s research,” he said. “Students make significant gains when they have more time, more support, and a stronger foundation.”
However, Gallagher cautioned against students skipping the eighth grade core math class, Math 8, and going straight to Algebra 1. “Skipping Math 8 is not acceleration,” he said. “It’s missing the foundation.”
Why is there all this study and debate over what was standard practice when I was in school? If I hasn’t taken algebra in middle school, I wouldn’t have been able to take AP Calculus in high school. The elective thing seems obvious, why are we treating kids like test subjects to find out that the best solution is the one we already had ten years ago?
In the future, please SFUSD, ignore any Stanford studies. The demise of 8th grade algebra came out of a study in support of the common core mathematics program, by Jo Boaler. A program that could work in a small school setting, but not for public schools. Keep mathing old school.
Jo Boaler is a true menace to society. That Stanford allows her to continue to be employed there is a travesty. I’m not sure how her inept theory of math (her degrees are not in mathematics, but in English) would be acceptable in a small district either.
I don’t understand your comment. Can you explain? Which studies, concluding what, and how does that relate to the different sides of the issue? Which program “would work in a small school setting” only? Perhaps “insiders” understand it, but the rest of us may not. Thanks.
My God. This made me weep. We can’t get it together to redo the curriculum, so that Algebra is the path for everyone for 8th grade math. :(. I’ll take the baby step, I guess.
Well, finally. Let’s hope they don’t mess up the reintroduction as much as they messed up its removal.
My kids were caught at the end of Algebra 1. We paid for our kids to take it elsewhere at our own expense at UC Scout. The district wasn’t going to accept the course, and then they wanted them to take a ridiculous equivalency test.
We were so frustrated with the terribly written and implemented math program, among other things, we got financial aid and went to independent high school. They accepted UC Scout just fine.
We know so many kids who deeply struggled with doubling up, and were not ready for advanced HS math. Now they are in college and trust me, it is not going well. The district cheated an entire generation of students into a substandard math education.
You know, there are public schools in the US that teach algebra 1 in 6th grade. Why is SFUSD so lacking?
David Herzstein Couch,
It is difficult for anyone outside the SFUSD community to grasp the current math crisis. Both the elementary (Illustrative Math) and middle school (Amplify) curricula rely on discovery based learning with almost no explicit instruction. While this “inquiry” method might work in small groups of advanced learners, it is failing SFUSD’s large classes of 27–33 students.
The current teaching method is insufficient. Students discuss a prompt in small groups, work on Chromebooks problems, and receive minimal homework often just 4–9 problems twice a week. This lack of drill and reinforcement is hurting students who lack a strong mathematical foundation.
The data shows the current system is failing. As of 2025, 89% of Black students and 82% of Hispanic students in the district are not proficient in math. These students require direct teacher instruction and daily practice to master the basics. Despite these massive gaps, SFUSD plans to push all students into 8th-grade Algebra, regardless of whether they failed 6th or 7th-grade math. Yes, regardless if pass or fail you are moved to the next math grade.
Below are links to articles concerning Jo Boaler.
https://www.piratewires.com/p/jo-boaler-misrepresented-citations
https://drive.proton.me/urls/P7BYBG7E6R#VCfOpReAcH9F
This is false, it passed 4-3 due to a last minute amendment.
So what is false?
Matt Alexander, Lisa Weissman-Ward, and Alida Fisher are the board members that voted against the measure.