(It seemed to me that my high school used an algorithm that amounted to “students who asked for honors classes got them”, although apparently there was a lot going on behind the scenes that I didn’t see...)
It depends entirely on when you were in school. At present day, most of a student’s path is determined by whether they are selected for 8th grade Algebra (in fact, if you were to rank all of the factors possible in determining a person’s lifetime earnings, the factor at the top would be whether you took Algebra in 8th grade). The 7th grade math teacher’s recommendation is the primary factor in this particular decision, and middle school teachers are incompetent at predicting whether a child could succeed at advanced math 4-6 years later.
in fact, if you were to rank all of the factors possible in determining a person’s lifetime earnings, the factor at the top would be whether you took Algebra in 8th grade
Citation needed, especially for a claim of causality.
Scary, if true, but not too surprising.
(It seemed to me that my high school used an algorithm that amounted to “students who asked for honors classes got them”, although apparently there was a lot going on behind the scenes that I didn’t see...)
It depends entirely on when you were in school. At present day, most of a student’s path is determined by whether they are selected for 8th grade Algebra (in fact, if you were to rank all of the factors possible in determining a person’s lifetime earnings, the factor at the top would be whether you took Algebra in 8th grade). The 7th grade math teacher’s recommendation is the primary factor in this particular decision, and middle school teachers are incompetent at predicting whether a child could succeed at advanced math 4-6 years later.
Citation needed, especially for a claim of causality.
I would settle for a correlation which was stronger than “whether you wanted to take Algebra in the 8th grade”.