Algebra, Geometry Classes Vary in Rigor, Says Study

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Washington

The drive to get every student to take so-called college gateway courses has succeeded, a new federal study finds, but students taking Algebra 1 and Geometry classes are getting considerably less substance than their course titles would suggest.

Nearly all of the class of 2005 graduated having taken Algebra 1, according to the latest iteration of the National Assessment of Educational Progress’s high school transcript study , released this month by the National Center for Education Statistics. Yet if their course materials are any indication, fewer than one in four of those students studied the kind of challenging topics needed to prepare for college-level mathematics.

During the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress in mathematics, NCES researchers also collected course transcript data from a representative sample of 17,800 students who graduated with a regular or honors diploma that year. They also analyzed 120 Algebra 1, Geometry, and integrated math textbooks used at the 550 public...