On Track or Derailed? Race, Advanced Math, and the Transition to High School

Recent scholarship has examined how accelerated math trajectories leading to calculus take shape during middle school. The focus of this study is on advanced math course taking during the critical yet understudied period that follows: the transition to high school. Data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 are used to examine advanced math course taking in ninth grade, including both track persistence among students who took advanced math in middle school and upward mobility among students who took standard math in middle school. Results reveal sizable racial gaps in the likelihood of staying on (and getting on) the accelerated math track, neither of which are fully explained by prior academic performance factors. Interactions with parents and teachers positively predict advanced math course taking. In some cases, interactions with teachers may also reduce inequality in track persistence, whereas interactions with counselors increase such inequality. Implications for research and policy are discussed.

Cultivating Confidence

Where does the conviction that I can do this if I try come from? In 1977, the psychologist Albert Bandura asserted that the most important determinant of self-efficacy is what he calls mastery experiences. After a lifetime of study, he hasn't changed his mind. The main idea is simple: if you attempt hard things, again and again, and eventually succeed, you come to believe in your capabilities. In contrast, if you fail repeatedly, you come to believe that you can't succeed, even if you try. The logic of mastery leading to confidence is undeniable. But it's easy to forget. When my daughter Amanda was in seventh grade, she opted into an accelerated math class. That fall, our little house shook with her weeping and wailing as she struggled to keep up. I'm the psychologist in the family, but in this instance, everything I knew about motivation and emotion went out the window as I, like Amanda, began to believe that this math class was just too hard for her. Instead, it was my husband, the real estate developer, who would sit next to Amanda, take out the umpteenth sheet of scrap paper, and help her. They would work through the easiest problems in the homework set, then the next easiest ones, and finally—sometimes after I'd gone to bed—the trickiest and most complex problems at the very end.

A study of the elementary math program utilized by a mid-Missouri school district

This qualitative study focused on one Mid-Missouri school district and was designed to collect and analyze teachers' and administrators' perceptions regarding the elementary math program for the purpose of program improvement. The district utilized ability grouping including acceleration for elementary math instruction. This study was analyzed using a constructivist framework and consideration was given to the theories of both Piaget and Vygotsky. Based on teachers' and administrators' perceptions, the accelerated math classes met the needs of the highest ability math students. Overall, according to teachers, the elementary math program did not meet the needs of the lowest students at the fourth and fifth grade levels where the accelerated math classes were being utilized.

Pedro's kitchen tiles

Christine Percy, a district-level mathematics teacher, was excited to facilitate this problem with students from two thirdgrade classrooms and their teachers in Palm Beach County, Florida. Both classes had studied area earlier in the school year. One class was in the accelerated math plan for third grade at Poinciana Elementary STEM School, taught by Ashley Esnes and math lab instructor Debbie Perry. The second class was a general education third-grade class at Elbridge Gale Elementary School, taught by Jamey Ferguson.

Window on Resources: November 2001

Accelerated Math Kit is a “task-level learning information system” designed to generate individualized assignments or assessments for middle-grades students. The teacher assigns objectives, which are found in the software's libraries, to classes or individual students. The program then prints personalized multiplechoice exercises, practice assignments, tests, or diagnostic tests. When students complete activities, they can scan their answers back into the computer using the AccelScan optical-mark scanner, or they can type in their answers using the keyboard. The program automatically scores the activity and produces a report for the student and teacher. It can generate the next practice assignment, exercise, or test or diagnostic test for each student, taking into account the objectives already mastered and any newly assigned objectives.