An Analysis of a Ninth Grade Mathematics Intervention

Many ninth grade students are required to take Algebra I, and extra support is needed for underprepared students. A common solution is to double the amount of mathematics instruction but educators do not agree on how to use the extra time. One common intervention is to enroll these students in a year long Algebra I course, where they are taught Algebra during these double class periods. We compare this with offering a catch-up course on basic skills, Transition to Advanced Mathematics (TAM) taught during the first half of the year, followed by a typical Algebra I course during the second half of the year. Preliminary analyses suggest students in the TAM condition outperform the control condition on general math skills but students in each condition do not differ in performance on an algebra test even though TAM students have had only half of the exposure to Algebra.