Algebra Benefits All Students, Study Finds

By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo

All students, regardless of their prior mathematical skills, benefit from taking algebra, a study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison concludes.

That finding, published in the fall issue of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis , a journal of the American Educational Research Association, should add weight to the recent push to encourage all students to take the course, one of the researchers said.

"The findings indicate that general-math classes should be eliminated because those are low-level classes that lack a strong pathway to the future," said Adam Gamoran, who conducted the study with Eileen C. Hannigan. "Students learn less in them, no matter how low their test scores are, than...