If San Francisco school officials have their say, there’s no question algebra will be offered in middle schools this fall for the first time in a decade. The big question is how.
Three options for the move are now on the table, with a final choice next month. But even if the Board of Education approves the district staff’s ultimate choice — a vote is scheduled for Feb. 13 — a daunting task to make it happen awaits, with a $420 million deficit on the horizon and potential school closures looming.
The algebra move is at the center of a broader effort to overhaul how SF’s public school students learn math. The district has made it a top priority, along with reform of elementary school literacy and high school programs and admissions. “Curriculum adoption and [teacher] training takes time, but we have an immediate need,” school board president Lainie Motamedi said at the board’s Tuesday night meeting.
The urgency stems from a dismal gap in scores along racial lines. In math, changes 10 years ago were supposed to help but they have not, according to a Stanford University study.
The Board of Education removed Algebra 1 from middle schools in 2014, saying it promoted racial tracking and segregation of students. In 2015, 48 percent of eighth grade students met or exceeded the state math standard, but just 13 percent of Black and 21 percent of Latino students did so. In 2023, 40 percent of students overall but only 4 percent of Black and 13 percent of Latino students met or exceeded the standard.
The district has a five-year plan to lift scores by 2027 to 65 percent overall proficiency in eighth grade. Based on tests last October, the district is now saying it’s “significantly off track” to meet its goals.
Like so many of the city’s public school issues — school names, pandemic closures, the recall of three school board members — algebra has become a hot political topic.
The city’s Board of Supervisors voted to put a nonbinding resolution on the March ballot, urging the return of algebra to eighth grade. A group of parents also sued the district last year to force the issue, but a judge’s ruling took much of the air out of their case.
Both efforts could become moot in a couple weeks when the school board casts its vote.
ABC, not easy as 1, 2, 3
Backers of eighth grade algebra are betting that the change, along with adjustments to the math curriculum for younger grades, will motivate students and start to lift scores; the school district’s top officials say it can be done without a return to tracking. They rolled out three options this week and asked parents for feedback in an online forum.
• Option A would offer a class called Math 8/Algebra 1, compressing extra material into a single year. Students could opt into it or otherwise stay with the regular Math 8 class. They would not have to drop an elective or other course to make room for math.
• Option B would offer Algebra 1 to those who want it either before school or during the day, in place of one elective class. (Eighth graders take two electives.) That might require dropping a foreign language or art class, which SFUSD assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction Nicole Priestly acknowledged as “trade-offs.” Priestly also noted during Wednesday’s forum that early morning classes could leave out students who travel a long way to school, have family obligations, or have morning sports practice.
The algebra class wouldn’t be compressed, which some parents in the forum liked. However, the format would put more burden on the district to ensure all students get foundational skills in earlier years to prepare them for the algebra option. (A recent outside audit of the district’s math programs consistently found flaws in earlier years, especially seventh grade.)
• Option C would offer Algebra 1 the summer after eighth grade. It would move fast, with more risk of kids falling behind — a week’s material per day, according to Priestly — and take place at a central location, not at neighborhood schools. There would be no fee for students. It was the only option that came with a price tag: The district estimates it would cost $200,000 to run 10 summer sections.
While 47% of classrooms reported high teacher expectations, there were differences based on the demographics of classes. An experience in a class with more students of color was 2.2x more likely to have lower expectations than in a class with fewer students of color.
from A recent audit of SFUSD math programs
Priestly warned that finding teachers for the summer option could be difficult. But the options during the school year would also present staffing headaches: more algebra teachers, more support staff, and more training out of school.
“We’re already in a staffing shortage for math and science,” said Cassondra Curiel, president of the United Educators of San Francisco (UESF), the union representing 6,500 teachers and other classroom staff. She has heard “nothing to address that [shortage] yet” in the discussion of Algebra 1 and broader reform, likening it to “changing ingredients without having a pot to put them in.”
Tech, training, and teachers
A citywide pilot of new curriculum is starting this fall in elementary and middle schools. At Tuesday night’s board meeting, SFUSD superintendent Matt Wayne lauded three schools as potential models — John Muir and Sanchez at the elementary level, and Presidio Middle — that have adopted new curriculum, teacher training and collaboration, technology such as Dreambox, and more.
At Presidio, teachers have been using Dreambox as more than an occasional supplement. “I appreciate the feature that flags students who need more support,” Presidio math and science teacher Karina Chiu told the board Tuesday. “I can go to those students and talk one on one.” Presidio students scored higher than district averages on last fall’s assessment test. Chiu also noted that “we’re lucky to have kids who want to learn.”
Also on Tuesday, John Muir principal Sara Liebert described the school’s math program, which began in 2015 with help from a city grant, as “teaching through problem-solving.” (She also called it “Japan math” based on its origins. It’s gotten SF officials excited enough to make an expensive trip overseas to learn more.) A big component is to give teachers extra time to plan collaboratively and observe each other’s classes.
Muir is one of four elementary schools to receive the city grant. All four scored below district averages on the recent assessment to varying degrees, but district officials are encouraged by the new “learning structure” and culture.
All signs point toward math reform needing more teachers, more time, and more resources. But the district’s budget deficit, exacerbated by years of declining enrollment, has the district planning what it euphemistically calls “resource realignment” — cost savings that could include school closures and layoffs. Officials and board members have taken pains, however, to say that closures are not inevitable.
Those plans will emerge soon. Tentative layoff notices must go to teachers in March, and the 2024–25 school year budget must be finalized in June. This fall, the district also plans to ask SF voters to approve what’s likely to be the city’s biggest bond ever, more than $1 billion, to fund construction and repair of the district’s aging buildings.
Teacher bumps
The union has no contractual power to stop school closures, according to Curiel, but ripple effects, such as loss of neighborhood schools or larger class sizes, could spark an outcry among families. Curiel also acknowledged that some schools and classrooms are under-enrolled, “and that’s not a great scenario either.”
Layoffs or not, teachers are due two salary bumps: a $9,000 increase this year and a 5 percent raise next year. The new contract was negotiated last fall amid threats of a strike. With current staffing, the raises were calculated to add $179 million a year once they fully kick in, according to the Chronicle. Superintendent Wayne said in December more than 900 vacant positions would be struck from the books, saving more than $100 million a year.
In 2021, the district had a $125 million deficit and faced the threat of a state takeover if it didn’t make difficult cuts. It avoided them thanks to a state budget windfall. The deficit projected for 2025–26 is nearly four times larger now, and there will likely be no life preserver. The city, which in good times offers extra funding, and the state are facing their own deficits.
All the while, officials have pledged to steer the $1.2 billion district toward a horizon that offers new math, literacy, and high school programs. They must figure out how to fund what’s working and move on from what isn’t. UESF president Curiel cited the John Muir math program as a bright spot. “It’s going to be great as long as it’s done right” — and doing it right, she emphasized, means “time and money.”