Can this city succeed in having all eighth graders take algebra where others have failed?

all eighth – Cambridge, Massachusetts has moved to place every eighth grader into Algebra I, a policy long tied to whether students are tracked early or pushed ahead together. Parents who felt their children were stalled in math say the change is a breakthrough. But educat

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Janina Matuszeski can describe her twins’ math life in two phrases. They were bored for years. Then, suddenly, they were going to algebra.

Her children. now finished with eighth grade in the Cambridge Public Schools. had been learning concepts and then watching them linger. “They’ll learn a concept in a day or a day and a half. and then the class will cover it for another two weeks. ” said Matuszeski. a consultant and former lecturer at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

That made Cambridge’s announcement feel like a promise worth taking seriously. The district said it would place all eighth graders in Algebra I. a shift that went into effect this past fall. Before the change. Cambridge middle schools did not offer Algebra I. even as parents of advanced students who could afford it often enrolled their children in algebra classes outside of school—boosting some students while widening gaps between poor and middle-class families.

For years, the question of when students should get algebra has inflamed education debates far beyond Cambridge. Completing Algebra I in eighth grade sets students on a path that many view as necessary to take Calculus by senior year. Calculus. in turn. is often treated as an unspoken requirement for admission to selective colleges and a prerequisite for certain careers in STEM fields of science. technology. engineering and math.

But pushing algebra earlier comes with a catch. If not all students are ready, educators often resort to tracking—separating students by perceived ability. Critics say that can harm students placed in lower tracks and deepen socioeconomic and racial divides. In response, many districts have removed algebra from eighth grade altogether.

San Francisco is the best-known example. It eliminated algebra in eighth grade in 2014, prompting backlash from parents that recently led the city to reverse itself. Cambridge has chosen a different route: to satisfy the demand for advanced coursework without sacrificing its goal of mixed-level. racially integrated middle school classes.

The gamble has already shown stress points.

This year’s rollout did not land smoothly. In interviews, several middle school math educators in Cambridge said the rollout felt rushed and poorly planned. Early signs suggest Cambridge may have to lift math achievement in earlier grades if it expects all eighth graders to be ready to succeed in Algebra I. The district shared data last week with the school board: more than 60 percent of rising ninth graders will retake Algebra I again next year because they did not do well enough in it this year.

Cambridge administrators said in an email that they held several conversations with teachers to monitor the rollout. “The work of identifying the best possible academic trajectory for all students is never finished,” Superintendent David Murphy said in a statement.

The debate over timing is so hard that even experts studying past algebra-for-all efforts describe it as a maze. Thurston Domina. an associate dean for academic affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Education who has studied the results of California’s algebra-for-all policies. said the question of when students should take the class is “a really hard problem.” “There are only so many options. and none of them are satisfying.”.

Cambridge’s own history shows why this is not just a scheduling decision—it is a long argument about whether schools can teach advanced material to a wide range of students without sorting them into lanes.

When Cambridge created standalone middle schools in 2012, those schools did not offer algebra. Two years later. partly in response to parent demand for algebra and partly because teachers said they were struggling to teach the wide range of levels in math classes. the district introduced two tracks for seventh and eighth graders: a “grade-level” track that did not include algebra. and an “accelerated” track that did.

Students were assigned to the tracks based on tests and teacher recommendations. but parents could also advocate for their children to be placed in the upper track. The district’s own presentations showed stark divides. In the 2015-16 school year. among seventh graders. only about 33 percent of Hispanic students. 25 percent of Black students. and 26 percent of economically disadvantaged students were in accelerated math. By comparison, the shares for white, Asian, and wealthier disadvantaged students were 70, 56, and 69 percent, respectively.

That distribution helped fuel backlash among principals, teachers, and a small number of parents. Some educators felt that concentrating high-needs students—and those who disliked math—into certain classes held those students back. Data from state tests showed that students in the accelerated track learned more than those in the grade-level track. a pattern found in many studies of tracking.

Because of scheduling constraints, the two tracks didn’t just split math. Students were often separated for other classes as well. Educators and parents also worried that being placed in the lower track undermined students’ self-confidence.

One mother, who spoke on the condition that her identity and her daughter’s identity not be used, described how her daughter absorbed the placement as a verdict. “No matter what I said to her, she read it as, ‘Because I’m dumb,’” she recalled. “And she probably would still now.”

In 2019, the district ended the tracks and aimed to deliver the accelerated curriculum to all students. The pandemic derailed that effort, and over the next few years the middle schools reverted to the grade-level curriculum.

Parents of advanced students grew increasingly frustrated. Their pressure intensified after the district announced in early 2023 that it would no longer allow students who’d taken Algebra I classes outside of school to automatically skip the course at the high school.

Algebra became a central issue in school board elections in 2023. Elizabeth Hudson, a tech entrepreneur and mother of three, won election by a landslide. Her campaign flyers proclaimed “MISSING: Advanced Math in Cambridge Public Schools” over a picture of a sad little boy holding an algebra textbook.

Shortly before the election. the district announced that it would accelerate the middle school curriculum so that all students were prepared to take Algebra I in eighth grade in the 2025-26 school year. Cambridge then appeared to delay—until January 2025. when. under pressure from parents not to miss the deadline. it instructed all seventh grade math teachers to change their pacing midyear to cram some eighth grade material into seventh grade.

Researchers looking at what works for low-performing students moving into advanced math courses often point to supports rather than speed alone. Studies of districts that have successfully put low-performing students in more advanced math classes have found they usually do so by offering extra support—such as a “double dose” of math (two periods of math) or tutoring—or by providing additional support for teachers through professional development. coaching. and extra planning time.

Cambridge implemented some supports. The district required that every eighth grade algebra class have a second teacher in the room. such as a special educator or a math interventionist. At one middle school. the Cambridge Street Upper School. eighth graders were placed this year in two math classes simultaneously—Algebra I and the regular eighth grade math course. In other schools. algebra teachers also had to cover the eighth grade math units that seventh grade teachers weren’t able to reach last spring.

In one Algebra I class at Cambridge Street in April. a teacher worked to bring in students who didn’t always raise their hands. what school staff call “first talkers.” When she asked about calculating an interest rate. she counted the hands up before calling on a student. “You know I’m going to wait for seven. One, two, three, four … ” she said, counting. “I’m waiting for three more people. Five … six … seven — there it is,” before calling on one of the students.

As the eighth graders worked, the math interventionist circulated—prompting students to begin if they hadn’t, or checking answers.

Still, teachers say that wide range of skill levels can make an accelerated course feel like too much even with extra adults in the room.

A mother whose son just finished eighth grade at Rindge Avenue Upper School asked not to be named to avoid identifying him. She said the rushed pace created stress and frustration for her child. even though she supported in theory the district’s decision to reintroduce algebra in eighth grade. She had expected accommodations for students like her son, who struggles in math and receives special education services. His special educators told her. she said. they did not think the accelerated curriculum was appropriate for him and students with similar challenges.

“We’re being pulled along on the coattails of these gifted kids, or the families of these gifted kids,” she said. “And the school district did not figure out a way to do this so that both sets of kids, and all of the ones in between, would be well served.”

Others described a different experience. Oxana Shevel said her daughter. Isabella Montana. completed eighth grade at Rindge Avenue and found the accelerated pace hard. but received substantial support. Shevel said Isabella worked twice a week in a small group with a math interventionist. and she had done that before the algebra rollout. She said Isabella was also allowed to retake tests to improve her grades. Over the course of this year, Shevel said Isabella grew more confident.

“At the beginning of the year, it was much harder,” Isabella said. She added that she wished students had had more time to catch up on seventh or eighth grade material they had missed—or had to race through last year.

As spring turned into next-year planning, the consequences of that race became administrative and personal. In March. when eighth graders had to register for high school courses next year. math teachers recommended—based on end-of-unit test scores and other factors—whether students should go into Geometry or take Algebra I again.

For some students, being told they needed to repeat algebra was devastating. An eighth grade math teacher who spoke on the condition of anonymity. because the teacher was not authorized by the district to speak. described meeting individually with every student to tell them which course the teacher recommended. Some students cried when they learned they would repeat algebra.

For others, repeating the course wasn’t treated as defeat. Cambridge’s high school offers two options for Algebra I: a yearlong course and a semester-long honors class that is faster paced. Students can also take Calculus by their senior year as long as they “double up” on math at some point.

Isabella plans to take the honors course. She and her mother said they would not have considered it if she had not been exposed to algebra in eighth grade. “I’m glad in hindsight that they did accelerated. because she now has more options for the high school than she would have otherwise. ” Shevel said.

Even among educators who did not oppose teaching algebra in eighth grade, the rollout itself remains a sticking point. Three educators who spoke for this article said they weren’t against offering algebra in eighth grade. but they were bothered by what they described as the district’s rushed and haphazard approach.

The district did not say what exactly it hoped to achieve—whether it was trying to increase the number of students taking honors or Advanced Placement math classes at the high school, or something else. It also did not invite teachers to reflect on how the year had gone.

“No one’s asking those questions,” said the eighth grade math teacher.

Murphy, too, has sounded less than fully settled about whether algebra-for-all is the right long-term fit for Cambridge. In an interview in February. Murphy—previously the district’s chief operating officer—appeared open to reintroducing some kind of tracking in middle school math. Murphy became interim superintendent in 2024, after the adoption of the algebra plan, and then permanent superintendent last October.

“At some point. we have to have a larger conversation about why is it that we are so concerned about deleveling at the K-8 level. and then all of a sudden they get to the high school and we are immediately sorting students into specific math classes with different names. ” he said. “I think there’s an obvious incongruence there.”.

For Matuszeski, the policy is still appealing on its own terms. She said she supports Cambridge’s detracked approach in middle school and that the teachers’ focus “on getting the weakest learners up to the middle, which I think is really important.”

But she is also looking ahead to what happens when her twins reach high school. This spring. she and her husband encouraged them to take an online geometry class so they could start ninth grade in Algebra II honors and then proceed to Precalculus. She described the plan as a way to open doors inside a faster track.

“We presented it to them as: ‘If you do this math class, you can get into math classes in high school where you can move faster and do more and possibly have more kids who are more focused in math,’” Matuszeski said.

Nothing is simple in this decision, she said. “Trying to balance what’s best for the community and what’s best for every child in the community with what your child needs is hard.”

Right now, Cambridge is trying to prove that balance can be managed without sorting students into lanes before they’re ready—or without forcing the least prepared students to fall behind.

It has put all eighth graders into Algebra I. The classroom work includes second teachers in the room and, at least at one school, Algebra I and regular eighth grade math running simultaneously. Yet the district’s own data show many students are already on a retake path.

Whether the bet pays off will depend on what Cambridge does next—how quickly it catches up the students who needed more time, and whether the district can make its promise of mixed-level classrooms survive contact with a math curriculum that moves at full speed for everyone.

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