The Los Angeles Education Research Institute (LAERI) hosted a virtual Research and Policy seminar on Sequoia Union High School District’s (SUHSD) Algebra I Initiative by Dr. Tom Dee and Dr. Elizabeth Huffaker, professor and post-doctoral research fellow at Stanford University. Dr. Diana Wilmot, SUHSD’s Director of Program Evaluation and Research, and Victoria Dye, SUHSD’s Executive Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional Development, provided perspective as district leaders about how the initial research findings helped inform their decision making.

The presenters reviewed findings from their random-assignment study of an innovative district-level reform—the Algebra I Initiative—that placed 9th-grade students with prior test scores well below grade-level math proficiency into Algebra I classes coupled with teacher training instead of a remedial pre-Algebra class. The researchers found that this reform significantly increased 11th–grade math achievement, attendance, district retention, and overall math credits.

To learn more, read a working paper about the research.