Access to algebra critical to Iowa

By Susan Assouline

----

Forty-six states have higher percentages of eighth graders in algebra than Iowa. Is that good enough? Do the math.

The governor's Iowa Education Summit in July highlighted the role of algebra as the gatekeeper to advanced math in high school and college. To take calculus as high school seniors, students need to take algebra in eighth grade.

Iowa is fourth from the bottom in the nation in terms of percentages of students taking algebra in eighth grade. Students who take algebra after eighth grade, yet want to take calculus in high school, must double up their math courses by taking algebra and geometry in the same year.

Iowa's students are surely as ready for algebra in eighth grade as students in other states. Indeed, we have the means to identify students ready for algebra well before eighth grade, some as young as fourth grade.

The University of Iowa College of Education's Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development has been doing this since 1992. Annually, we invite bright students in grades 4-6 to take an eighth-grade test through our above-level testing program - the Belin-Blank Exceptional Student Talent Search, known as BESTS. As a group, these bright elementary students outperform the national average for eighth graders.

Unfortunately, our message reaches only about 5 percent to 10 percent of eligible elementary students in our state. And many of Iowa's students are stuck in a spiral math curriculum that offers little new information each year. However, by working together with the schools, we can identify all of the students who are ready for advanced challenges in math as early as fourth grade. The academic needs of our students should be the driving force behind placement in the curriculum, not the status quo.

World-class education for all students is the new reform goal, and access to algebra when students are ready - and certainly by eighth grade - is critical to realizing that goal. We can use the tools and resources unique to our state:

l Step 1: UI College of Education's Iowa Testing Programs, developer of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, is a perfect source for finding students who have mastered their basic skills in math.

l Step 2: ACT's eighth-grade test, EXPLORE, used as an above-level test by BESTS, is an effective way to discover mathematically talented students.

l Step 3: Partnerships among the UI College of Education, ACT, the Iowa Department of Education (DOE), and Iowa's schools can sustain the momentum initiated by Branstad and Iowa DOE Director Jason Glass at the summit.

No other state has two world-class testing programs and a university-based center for gifted education in the same state. No other state has the momentum that was generated by Branstad's Iowa Education Summit.

Together, we are uniquely poised to move rapidly to the top, especially with respect to ensuring that students have access to algebra when they are ready, and by eighth grade.

But what we have been doing is no longer good enough.

If algebra is today's gatekeeper to advanced math, we can be sure that over the next decade, calculus will become the new algebra. Will Iowa's students be ready?

Susan Assouline, a professor of school psychology and the associate director of the Belin-Blank Center for Gifted and Talented Education in the University of Iowa College of Education, participated in the Governor's Iowa Education Summit last month. Comments: susan-assouline@uiowa.edu