A higher percentage of students last year completed at least Algebra 1 in middle school and more students enrolled in at least one Honors or Advanced Placement (AP) course in high school, as efforts to increase academic rigor continued to make progress in the Montgomery County Public Schools.

Increases in the percentage of students successfully completing Algebra 1 or a higher-level mathematics course during the 2000-2001 school year were recorded in all three grades in middle school. The percentage of high school students enrolled in at least one Honors or AP course increased by more than 5 percentage points. The findings are contained in a new report from the Office of Shared Accountability (see PDF file at the link below).

The completion of Algebra 1 or a higher-level math course in middle school begins as early as sixth grade. Last year, 36 students in Grade 6 met this mark. While this number represents a small fraction of the sixth grade enrollment, the number of sixth graders completing Algebra 1 or a higher-level math course is more than three times the number the year before.

In Grade 7, the percentage of students successfully completing Algebra 1 or a higher-level mathematics course increased to 8 percent. Four years ago, the percentage completing such courses was 2.6 percent. In addition, the percentage of African American students (1.9 percent) and Hispanic students (1.8 percent) completing these courses doubled compared to the prior year, and the percentage of Asian American and white students increased by 50 percent to 14.3 and 10.7 percent, respectively.

Nearly half of the eighth grade students (45.2 percent) completed Algebra 1 or a higher-level math course, an increase of 4.3 percentage points over the prior year. The highest percentage also was achieved among each racial and ethnic group. The completion rate among African American students (23.9 percent) was up more than 7 percentage points. Asian American students increased by nearly 2 percentage points to 63.8 percent. Hispanic students increased by more than 5 percentage points to 19.0 percent. White students also increased by 5 percentage points to 57 percent.

In Grade 9, nearly three-fourths of all students (74.8 percent) completed Algebra 1 or a higher-level mathematics course, a completion rate of 2.2 percent higher than the 1998-1999 school year. (The Grade 9 results previously reported for the 1999-2000 school year were found during the preparation of the new report to be noncomparable to current and prior years’ results due to a problem in the transfer of data between the previous Student Information System and the current Student Legacy System. The problem affected only the Grade 9 data.)

A comparison of the Grade 9 results for the 1998-1999 and 2000-2001 school years shows that each racial/ethnic group made gains over the two-year period, with African American students posting a 4.9 percent increase (53.5 percent), Asian American students a 3.3 percent increase (89.7 percent), Hispanic students a 2.7 percent increase (47 percent), and white students a 1.5 percent increase (87 percent).

The percentage of high school students enrolled in at least one Honors or AP course reached 61.1 percent last year, an increase of 5 percentage points over the previous year. All high schools increased except one, which matched the previous year’s enrollment. Increases also were made among each racial and ethnic group.

Compared to the prior year, the percentage of African American students enrolled in at least one Honors or AP course increased by more than 7 percentage points to 39 percent. Asian American students increased by 5 percentage points to 74.5 percent. Hispanic students increased by more than 4 percentage points to 36.2 percent. White students increased by more than 5 percentage points to 71.9 percent.

[The full report is available as a PDF file at the link below.]