Why Algebra 1 is an Educational Gatekeeper

Welcome to this episode of the Sneaker Principal podcast, where we explore the significance of Algebra 1 in our education system. As an experienced school leader, I'll share why Algebra 1 is crucial and challenge educators to prevent it from becoming a barrier for students. We'll also discuss the role of principals in promoting math education and its impact on students' success, both academically and in their future careers. Join us on this enlightening journey to prepare students for the 21st-century workforce.

Chapters

• 0:01 Importance of Algebra 1 in Education
• 9:15 Importance of Math Education for Success
• 23:41 Challenging Educators to Create Math Plan

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

So this is my open letter to principals about Algebra 1.

Speaker 2: 0:08

When they see me. They know that every day, when I'm breathing, it's for us to go farther. You know, every time I speak, I want the truth to come out. You know what I'm saying. Every time I speak, I want to shiver. You know, I don't want them to be like. They know what I'm going to say, because it's polite. They know what I'm going to say and even if I get in trouble, you know what I'm saying. Ain't that what we're supposed to do? I'm not saying I'm going to rule the world or I'm going to change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world, and that's our job. It's to spark somebody else watching us. We might not be the ones, but let's not be selfish. And because we're not going to change the world, let's not talk about how we should change it. I don't know how to change it, but I know if I keep talking about how dirty it is out here, somebody's going to clean it up, and now he's been promoted. His job principle.

Speaker 1: 1:03

Good morning everyone. This is Ucheng Joku. Welcome to the Sneak Business Book podcast. It is about 5.30 in the morning and I woke up thinking to myself how we don't have this conversation about Algebra 1 and why is so important. I'm going to say this If you're a school leader and I'm going to let the elementary school principals off the hook but specifically middle school and high school, if you don't make Algebra 1 a priority, you're doing our students a huge injustice.

Speaker 1: 1:52

One thing I've learned over 19 years actually, I keep saying 19 years, but it's been longer than that. If I count the years, that, the few years I spent working as an intern for social work actually many, many moons in California, it's over 20 years. And in those years, if you also include my time in college and especially in high school, middle school how important Algebra is. And some might say, well, there's very little use for Algebra in the real world. But Algebra is a gatekeeper. And how do I know it's a gatekeeper? The number of students every year that struggle to just pass Algebra, especially in a place like New York State where, for the time being, you have Regents exams, and these are exams that test skill sets within certain content areas to allow you to graduate with a Regents diploma. It's pretty much the basis of measuring whether or not you've been educated enough to move on beyond high school. And one of the exams that constantly holds students back is Algebra. Typically, what happens is Algebra is a course that you have to take when you get to high school, preferably in the ninth grade, and when you get there you know you take the class. It's a one-year class, but what happens is a lot of students don't really fare well in Algebra. Then, to make things worse, to take the Regents exam or whatever examination in your locality to prove that they have, you know, I don't even say mastered, because we use mastery in a very, very, very loose way. But let's be honest here. We don't really go for mastery, we just want to kiss the past.

Speaker 1: 3:52

So, like in New York State, passing, at least in New York City, is 65. If you get 65 minimum out of 100, you've passed and you know. 65 just means you were able to exercise some level of discernment and figuring out what the answer is without really truly engaging the bigger topics. You know well enough to get those questions right. So you know enough to get through the test, but you don't really know enough to have grounding to move on to higher math courses and again 65.

Speaker 1: 4:34

But the reality is that, excuse me, let me take a sip of this jasmine tea, wake my throat up. On the side note, those of you who don't do this you should make this a practice in the morning. Have something warm to kind of like get your system going, to get the body just energized. I like to do jasmine tea in the morning. Sometimes I might do turmeric ginger tea, but I still get my coffee on the way to work. But this is a way for me to just kind of like get my body going. So there's not paid sponsorship, it's just me talking about my daily health practices. So, yeah, tea.

Speaker 1: 5:19

So algebra becomes a bottleneck. A lot of kids get stuck. A lot of kids find themselves repeating the class or doing some kind of some remediation because they passed the class, or they passed the class but not high enough to or well enough to do on the test and they get stuck there. And this is where I hate math begins for a lot of kids. You know, I mean they might not like it, but when you get the algebra they get to that place of I hate math I hate. I hate algebra and a lot of schools you know, like in New York, I think, you have to geometry and after geometry you could be done with math.

Speaker 1: 6:04

But the problem again is you're limiting access because again it could be argued that you don't really need math. If you, if you're moving towards certain fields, or at least you don't need algebra, you need I mean of course you need basic math. You can, if you can't, count, change. I'll meet basic basic calculations. That is a problem, a big problem. But the argument is like you know, this is get to algebra, she can graduate.

Speaker 1: 6:33

But I say this math is a gatekeeper. Algebra is a gatekeeper because without algebra your chances of really navigating, you know, career pathways and being future ready is very limited. And what I mean by career pathways? There are many careers that require advanced certifications and these are for advanced certifications. Whether it's certification certification or actual college degree or whatever it may be, you're going to find math somewhere, somewhere there, especially at prestigious institutions. I'm not talking about degree mills with their schools out there. They'll give you, they'll give you a degree just for sneezing, you know, in, in, in, in cadence, and obviously you have a, you have a bachelor's degree in, you know, in Illinois, and thermodynamics of sneezing, I don't know. But if we're talking about places that where you will be trained and prepared to go into legitimate fields, a lot of these places want to see your overall transcripts. You want to see, do you want to see, how you perform in the core content areas? Because what you get into your institution, you're going to be challenged. You're not only that, you're competing with other candidates for a fixed number of seats. So if math is not there you are, you're literally being blocked out.

Speaker 1: 8:03

So let me let me talk specifically about my experience as a high school principal. I knew, without a doubt, algebra 1 was a problem. It was a problem when I was in school. It was a problem when I was a dean and assistant principal in high schools. So when I became a high school principal, within I would say about a year, we drafted and created a plan to no longer allow students to just come in and, you know, flounder in the abyss of failing Algebra 1. We instituted for those kids who came in and we pre-tested them and we saw, whoa, that they were not gonna trend very well towards passing Algebra and the state regions in Algebra. So what we did was you came in and you did a two-year sequence of Algebra. So the first year was pretty much pre-algebra All the basic skills that you need to have to be able to be successful in Algebra.

Speaker 1: 9:15

1. There were kids who came in and and thankfully their principals, their schools, had a very similar philosophy on the importance of being high school ready by having a strong foundation in Algebra. And so when these kids in eighth grade took Algebra and they took it in middle school whether it was a seventh or eighth grade sequence or it was just eighth grade they took it, they passed the regions and and when it came to me, I didn't have to assess because I never went just on what your score was. I now have to do my baseline assessment and see where are you? Are you someone who's approaching who's at mastery, approaching mastery or just passed? And that was it. If you were at mastery, then you went straight to geometry. You came into ninth grade and you went straight to geometry. We were not playing games, you already passed the class and everything else, straight to geometry.

Speaker 1: 10:10

Those who were approaching mastery, who really needed some grounding. They would come in and they would sit in a course. Maybe we would call it something like advanced, advanced Algebra, so we can really make sure we grounded them even further so they would be able to go to geometry and beyond. Those who came in and they were just like they had nothing and we knew they didn't need a lot of remediation. And I don't believe in remediation, I really believe in acceleration. So those who need to be accelerated to what they need to be, we put them into a two-year sequence and that was algebra, pre-algebra and algebra one and it was literally one course but just spent over two years making sure we were giving the foundations and we were pushing them to be ready for to be successful and it would go straight into. So if they did a two-year sequence, that would mean ninth grade, pre-algebra, tenth grade they would do algebra one, then in the 11th grade they would do geometry.

Speaker 1: 11:14

In some cases, because of the way geometry really functions, there were kids who a lot of kids were able to give them their sophomore year algebra one and geometry at the same time. But they had such a strong grounding in that pre-algebra class, ninth grade year, they did stellar and they were able to actually have algebra one and geometry at the same time. And it's not always advised, but you have to make sure you have strong teachers who are working together, who can kind of fill in the gaps for each other. But we did that. And why did we have such a strong emphasis on on algebra? Because I wanted every kid, by the time they graduated, to at least minimum, various minimum set in algebra two. So if you came in like just with nothing pre-algebra, ninth grade, algebra one, tenth grade, geometry, eleventh grade, or if you were just that kid and we knew we can get you there, you would couple algebra one and geometry at the same time, then junior year, if you did those, if you did two at the same time, then junior year you'd be an algebra, algebra two or trigonometry. And if, if you were just you weren't able to do that, still fine, you did pre-algebra, algebra, geometry and your senior year, algebra two, trigonometry. But I wanted you to have all four years of math Because, as you are now applying to colleges, trade programs, whatever the case is, you had a very strong transcript in math education Because it's something that stands out, you know.

Speaker 1: 12:59

But now those kids who came in with algebra re-past. Let me tell you about their path. They would go to algebra one, ninth grade, geometry, tenth grade, trigonometry, eleventh grade, and, depending on how strong you were, some kids would go to pre-calc, some kids would go to straight calculus, because what we had was teachers who would embed calculus in algebra two, trigonometry, and kind of finished like which kids were just stars that we can accelerate them, and all pre-calc was at a slower pace, but then calculus was just like straight. It was a college course and for our artists, those who were just like this is not my jam they would go to stats, you know, advanced placement stats. And the reason for this is we wanted to make sure when these students applied to colleges or whatever they chose to do next, they were just that much stronger.

Speaker 1: 14:03

I had kids who were like you know what? I want to go to the military, that's what I want to do, I'm not ready for college, I just want to get away from here. And they have to choose the military. For the military you have to take the ASVAB. That thing is the Armed Forces, battery, armed Forces, verbal and something, something that has been many years, but ASVAB and overwhelmingly those students who went through this sequence of math, they scored so high on ASVAB, you know, especially in the math section and the technical sections they scored so high. So you have kids who were not just going to be infantry, they were like going through engineering, they were going into military intelligence because they just had a way of thinking that is only that could only be influenced by having a strong math education, then only that, the level of confidence. But when a kid now is amongst their peers from other schools and their peers are like I'm doing math and they're in the 10th grade, I'm doing math and they're like well, my school, I have to keep it going. They know they're different, they know what we're doing is different and they know the outcomes are different and we tell them this every single day.

Speaker 1: 15:25

The first class that I had who graduated from my last school as a prior school principal, that were really part of the beginning of the sequence when I said they all were sitting, all of them were sitting in math senior year and some were sitting. Some were sitting in ASVAB-1, I'm so ASVAB-2 trigonometry. Some were sitting in AP stats. Some were sitting in PreCalc and a lot of them were sitting in both, either PreCalc and stats or some kind of combination.

Speaker 1: 15:59

When I say all 100% of our graduate seniors got into college. 70% of them got full scholarships, like they were fully covered 70%. And one common denominator across all of them was their math education. Was their math education? Because I know for a fact, when you apply to college and they see your transcript and they see all that math, they're like whoa, even if you're just, I mean, I don't want you to have in a, c, c's in math, but even if you have C's or B minuses, the fact that you kind of pushed along through math means there's a certain level of commitment and perseverance and grit. But we all know most people they run away from math.

Speaker 1: 16:46

But the fact that students made it all the way through said something about them. Also what they decided to do to major in or career-wise. And of those students who the 100% got into college again, none of them went to college. Some of them said you know what? I'm going to go into the workforce right now. That's what I need right now. Some opted to go to the military, some opted to go to trade school and that was probably fine, because the one thing that I know is that we gave them something that can never be taken away, you know, and that is self-determination grounded in the fact that they knew they can do more Because they did more than others, and that is something that's very, very important.

Speaker 1: 17:34

So this is something that I'm gonna challenge you, as a high school principal, to really think about. If your school does not have a expectation that all your students are gonna do foyer's and math, start thinking about that. Don't be just a diploma man pushing kids out. Put them in a space when they first come down to stand. This is the sequence, this is the articulation from the moment you walk into this high school until you graduate, and I have kids who, like again, they do the pre-algebra, ninth grade, algebra, tenth grade, geometry, eleventh grade, and then they sit in algebra two and trigonometry and that's their senior year, and whenever possible, we add computer science in there or we might add stats in there, because we know that that is the common denominator in determining whether or not a student is gonna be seen for their ability.

Speaker 1: 18:39

Now let's talk about middle school. So middle school because again, this is an area where a lot of schools don't even think about Middle school is often treated like an extension of elementary school, depending on who's leading that space or the philosophy of the district. But I challenge people to rethink about middle school as the cheat code for success in math in high school. What do I mean by that? You have a whole entire space that typically most states are under-regulated. When I mean under-regulated, the requirements are very, very. You know, con lucy-goosey, yeah, there are requirements, but if you go above and beyond you need to be able to lose your loan. So do I see? Middle school? Is this? Kids coming in the sixth grade? You gotta assess them, you gotta know, you gotta re-find out. You know what, do they know? Where can we start? And I would say this Pre-algebra should be spiraled in from sixth all the way through seventh.

Speaker 1: 19:45

So be spiraled in. Whatever the state requirements are for sixth grade math, seventh grade math, you have to find the time in there to spiral in pre-algebra, whether it's say, okay, sixth grade it'll be two units, one or two units of pre-algebra. No, I know schedule will be an issue, but maybe, rather than just having those five 45-minute blocks, you take away from somewhere and add another 45-minute block a week that when the kids walk into that classroom they know they're just doing pre-algebra. Looking at equations, understanding the center structure of equations, you know graphing those basic and it should be fun. There's no heat, just fun. Practicing skills, develop a foundational understanding. Same thing in seventh grade and then, as time goes on, build upon that. Build upon that Because by the time they get to the eighth grade, those students should be high school ready.

Speaker 1: 20:48

By the time they're done with the eighth grade, you know, having two years of pre-algebra spiraled in, spiraled in, and then eighth grade either sitting completely in the algebra, because I don't know a single state that would say, oh no, we don't want our eighth graders doing algebra. If the kids can do algebra, trust me, people will let it happen, unless it's a state they wouldn't, and I don't know what that state is and if there is, please let me know in the comments. But however, eighth grade should be algebra. And if you're in New York, I tell my kids if you're not ready for the Regents exam, then you won't take it. We're going to assess you, we're going to make sure that you're not just getting the 65. You're getting as close to the mastery as possible and if you don't, it's okay.

Speaker 1: 21:38

Go to high school with what you know. And again, we will reach out to the high school and say, hey, do me a favor, assess this kid, because this is what the kid did here and any real good high school and we tend to want to send our kids to those schools that we know that have understanding of what how important math is we'll assess that kid and say, hey, wow, you're either at emerging, approaching mastery, or you're at mastery. If you're at mastery, maybe what we need to do is maybe provide you with some kind of Regents prep Saturday or after school morning or period of day just to get you ready for the test because you already know the content. Or or, if you've passed it, okay, just put you in geometry. That's what we need to do, you know, at the end of the day, I'm saying also say, if you want our kids to have access to spaces that we know are super competitive, let's give them the competitive edge, because by not doing so now think about all the things that can go wrong.

Speaker 1: 22:41

If they're not competitive and there are not enough spaces to be able to compete and actually show out what they know and prove that they deserve to be in college spaces in those right jobs in those right fields. Then the options become minimal. People always say I've heard this that prisons are built based on third grade reading scores, and that might be the case, but more prisons are also built by students not being able to perform or be competitive in spaces with math, because then you come out to the real world and your options are very limited. And then guess what happens? You dab on in spaces that you probably shouldn't be, and there are prisons being built for our children, intentionally waiting for those who decide to go the wayward path.

Speaker 1: 23:41

So again I'm going to challenge you, principals, educators, superintendents, wherever you are. What is your math plan? Not just only to close the achievement gap, even though that must be done. What is your math plan to ensure that your students are ready to go into the world and not just survive but conquer? Alright, guys, we're training Joku Sneaker. Principal, have a great day, have an amazing, amazing day and I'll talk to you later. Peace.