Biography

The Academic and Socioemotional Effects of Advanced Mathematics Coursetaking

Abstract

Although existing research suggests that students benefit on a range of outcomes when they enroll in early algebra classes, policy efforts that accelerate algebra enrollment for large numbers of students often have negative effects. We explore this divergence, providing regression discontinuity evidence on the effects of early algebra placement showing that early algebra boosts subsequent math and English Language Arts (ELA) outcomes. We then investigate how early algebra might affect ELA outcomes. We find no effects of early algebra placement on social and emotional learning outcomes, and no effects on the characteristics of the ELA teachers students were exposed to. But we do find large and substantively meaningful effects of early algebra placement on students’ peer composition. This finding provides insights into why policies aimed at accelerating algebra broadly may fail, and why early algebra affects students’ achievement beyond mathematics.