By Jo Napolitano, The 74
This story first appeared at The 74, a nonprofit news site covering education. Sign up for free newsletters from The 74 to get more like this in your inbox.
A national sample of 55,000 students across dozens of states revealed that even when they were ready for 8th-grade algebra based on their 7th-grade test scores, almost a quarter didn’t enroll in the class.
In 2025, roughly 1 in 4 seventh graders in the NWEA study had spring scores that met or beat what researchers deemed to be an algebra-readiness benchmark. But some 25% were not taking the course in eighth grade.
Another report, this one focused solely on New York, showed 58% of seventh graders across the state who took the Math 7 assessment scored proficient in 2023-24. But only 37% of eighth graders in schools that serve both seventh and eighth grade were enrolled in Algebra I, a course linked to math success in high school, college and beyond.
Stated another way, of the 151,000 eighth graders included in the study, about 20,000 more could have been seated in the class.
“We are missing out on kids who could be very successful in STEM fields,” said Megan Kuhfeld, NWEA’s director of growth modeling and data analytics and one of the principal authors of the national report. “That door closes — and it closes further doors down the line.”
Kuhfeld said some of the students — they hailed from 29 states — counted themselves out of the course while others were steered away by parents or teachers.
Those who were academically ready for it would have benefited from taking the class: students with stronger prior math achievement perform better in algebra when they enroll in eighth grade rather than ninth, her study found.
“The benefits outweigh the risks,” said Kuhfeld, whose report came out in August and included only those children whose schools offered the course in 8th grade. “They’re more likely to do better if they take it early.”
NWEA offers academic testing and learning solutions to some 13 million students in roughly 12,400 districts across the globe, according to the company, which was bought by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2023.
The smaller study, called “Proficient and Passed Over,” was crafted by the New York Equity Coalition, a group convened by The Education Trust-New York, a statewide education policy and advocacy organization. It identified several reasons students did not immediately enroll.
For example, of the 655 districts that serve at least 50 seventh and eighth grade students, 56 do not offer Algebra I at all; another 37 offer it to eighth graders in some — but not all — of their schools.
The Equity Coalition found income disparity, too, in terms of who was ready to take the more rigorous course: Only 43% of students from low-income backgrounds were proficient on the Math 7 assessment compared with 71% of their more affluent peers.
Race also played a role in student access: While 38% of Black students in New York state were deemed proficient in the Math 7 Assessment, only 13% were enrolled in 8th-grade algebra. Asian students were even more severely impacted: 75% qualified based on 7th grade scores, but only 14% were seated for it.
Other major school systems, including Hillsborough County Public Schools in Tampa, Florida, reflect the same phenomenon. Officials there told The 74 that 2,813 7th-grade students scored high enough on a qualifying math test in the 2025-26 school year to register for the course by that measure. But only 1,882 children were enrolled.
“There are a lot of factors that impact student placement,” said district spokeswoman Tanya Arja, who added that a high 7th-grade math score does not equal automatic placement. “Schools also consider prior coursework, grades, teacher recommendations and parent input when determining the most appropriate mathematics course for each student.”
Similarly, 8,405 8th graders in Chicago Public Schools met one or more of the recommended standardized-test indicators for algebra readiness, spokeswoman Quan Vu said. But only 7,904 students from this class took middle-grades algebra by the end of eighth grade.
The district doesn’t have strict eligibility requirements for placement, she said. Instead, schools are encouraged to consider kids’ mastery of key sixth- and seventh-grade standards, classroom grades and their “ability to meaningfully demonstrate mathematical strategies in their work, explain and justify solutions, and persevere when solving complex problems.”
Vu added there are multiple points at which a student who met eligibility might not take or complete the class.
“For instance, schools decide which students to invite — or students and families may opt not to enroll,” she said.
Melodie Baker, research lead at EdTrust-New York, notes many students and families might not understand the long-term benefit of starting the pathway to high school calculus early.
And they shouldn’t be penalized for it, she said.
“I don’t think the burden should fall on students or families to figure out how to ‘get in’ once a student has demonstrated readiness,” Baker said. “That’s why the New York Equity Coalition and EdTrust-New York have recommended an automatic enrollment, opt-out approach, paired with academic supports, so access is based more consistently on readiness rather than (on) who knows to ask or advocate.”
Automatic enrollment places all students who qualify academically into the class without further criteria, requiring them to opt out in order not to be enrolled. The practice has its detractors. Andrew McEachin, senior research director at the ETS Research Institute, said the course doesn’t offer the same opportunity for everyone.
“A course is only as good as the teaching, support and preparation behind it,” McEachin said. “My research and others’ points to a consistent pattern: Students who are ready for algebra benefit from taking it — often a lot — and the gains are often biggest for groups who have historically been shut out. But policies that push every student into algebra regardless of readiness haven’t lived up to their promise.”
On average, McEachin said, those policies haven’t raised achievement — and often haven’t reduced inequality.
“I’d also push back on treating ‘readiness’ as something decided in seventh or eighth grade,” he said. “Whether a student is ready for algebra at 13 reflects the math they learned at (age) 5, 8 and 10. By middle school, many of the gaps we see in who qualifies are already well established. So, any serious conversation about acceleration has to start when children first enter school.”
Kuhfeld found that for those who are not yet ready for the course, simply waiting until ninth grade is not enough to improve their performance.
“Students in the bottom half of the distribution perform similarly whether they take algebra in eighth or ninth grade, and both groups remain below the algebra proficiency benchmark,” her study concluded. “These students need additional help to succeed in algebra, not simply more time before enrolling.”
McEachin said the goal shouldn’t be “algebra for all” — or “algebra for few.”
“It should be making sure every student who is ready gets a seat, and building readiness from the start so that more students are ready when the time comes,” he said. “Seen that way, the New York finding is troubling: those are exactly the students the research says should be in the class.”
Pam Seda, CEO of Seda Educational Consulting, said there are many obstacles in enrollment, including that seventh graders often “do not have the maturity or foresight to know whether or not they are interested in pursuing a STEM career that requires calculus.”
Seda said, too, that stereotypes can influence teachers’ beliefs about kids’ mathematical abilities, keeping them out of the class.
“Students who internalize these stereotypes will often not think they are capable of succeeding in 8th-grade algebra, even when external metrics indicate that they are ready,” Seda said.
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This story was produced by The 74, a non-profit, independent news organization focused on education in America.
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Photo credit: The path to early algebra shows that 25% of the 7th graders who are academically ready to take the course in 8th grade don’t make it there. (NWEA Research)
