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NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES

THE AFTERMATH OF ACCELERATING ALGEBRA:
EVIDENCE FROM A DISTRICT POLICY INITIATIVE
Charles T. Clotfelter
Helen F. Ladd
Jacob L. Vigdor
Working Paper 18161
http://www.nber.org/papers/w18161

NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH
1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
June 2012

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Institute for EducationSciences and American Institutes
for Research through the Center for the Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research. We
thank seminar participants at Notre Dame, the APPAM annual meeting, the CALDER annual research
conference, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the University of Illinois-Chicago, and the Association
for Education Finance and Policy annual meeting as well as DanGoldhaber, Nora Gordon, Henry
Levin, and Gary Solon for helpful comments. Kyle Ott and Alexandra Oprea provided outstanding
research assistance. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect
the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subjectto the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official
NBER publications.
© 2012 by Charles T. Clotfelter, Helen F. Ladd, and Jacob L. Vigdor. All rights reserved. Short sections
of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full
credit, including © notice, is given to the source.

The Aftermath of Accelerating Algebra:Evidence from a District Policy Initiative
Charles T. Clotfelter, Helen F. Ladd, and Jacob L. Vigdor
NBER Working Paper No. 18161
June 2012
JEL No. I21,J24
ABSTRACT
In 2002/03, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina initiated a broad program of accelerating
entry into algebra coursework. The proportion of moderately-performing students taking algebra in
8th grade increased from halfto 85%, then reverted to baseline levels, in the span of just five years.
We use this policy-induced variation to infer the impact of accelerated entry into algebra on student
performance in math courses as students progress through high school. Students affected by the acceleration
initiative scored significantly lower on end-of-course tests in Algebra I, and were either significantly
lesslikely or no more likely to pass standard follow-up courses, Geometry and Algebra II, on a college-preparatory
timetable. Although we also find that the district assigned teachers with weaker qualifications to Algebra
I classes in the first year of the acceleration, this reduction in teacher quality accounts for only a small
portion of the overall effect.

Charles T. Clotfelter
SanfordInstitute of Public Policy
Box 90245 Duke University
Durham, NC 27708
and NBER
charles.clotfelter@duke.edu
Helen F. Ladd
Sanford School of Public Policy
Box 90245 Duke University
Durham, NC 27708
hladd@duke.edu

Jacob L. Vigdor
Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708
and NBER
jacob.vigdor@duke.edu

1. Introduction
In 2008, the California State Boardof Education voted to require all students to enroll in
Algebra by 8th grade.1 This policy initiative, yet to be actually implemented, represents the
culmination of a decades-long movement toward offering algebra instruction before the
traditional high school years.2 Nationally, the proportion of eighth-grade students enrolled in
algebra doubled between 1988 and 2007 (Perie, Moran and Lutkus,2005; Walston and
McCarroll 2010), reaching rates over 50% in three states and the District of Columbia.3 The
movement to offer algebra instruction before high school has been inspired in large part by
correlational research documenting significant differences in later-life outcomes between those
students who enroll in algebra by 8th grade and those who do not.
Correlation need not imply...