Allard, Jennifer Evans2023-06-152023-06-152023-06-14vt_gsexam:35877http://hdl.handle.net/10919/115434The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of a school division policy on early algebra on students' course taking patterns in high school. Over the past two decades, there has been significant growth in the number of students taking Algebra 1 in middle school. Research about the advantages and drawbacks to completing Algebra 1 prior to high school have mixed conclusions, with some suggesting that students benefit from the opportunity to take more advanced mathematics and science courses in high school and others concluding that students are more likely to fail and need to repeat courses if they take Algebra 1 early (Stein et al., 2011). Most of the research has focused on students taking Algebra 1 in eighth grade. At the same time, there is an ever-growing group of students seeking to take Algebra 1 even earlier, as evidenced by expansive growth in the number of students accessing Advanced Placement Calculus prior to twelfth grade (College Board, 1997; College Board, 2017). To assess the impact of early Algebra 1, the researcher considered transcript data for two cohorts of students in a large, suburban school district who took Algebra 1 in seventh or eighth grade. Statistical analysis was performed to assess whether students were likely to access the highest level mathematics courses available to them, whether they were staying in mathematics courses throughout all years of high school, and what patterns might emerge in mathematics and science course taking for students based on when they took Algebra 1. The findings indicated that students in this cohort who took Algebra 1 in eighth grade were more likely to complete the highest level mathematics courses available to them than those who took Algebra 1 in seventh grade, but they also took, on average, fewer total mathematics and science courses. For all students taking middle school Algebra 1, there were sharp declines in students accessing honors-level mathematics coursework as they advanced through the mathematics sequence.ETDenIn Copyrightsecondary mathematicsmathematics accelerationAlgebra 1transcript studyDissertation