Critics slam Algebra HSA test

Maryland's Algebra High School Assessment (HSA) exam, which is being phased in as a graduation requirement, has come under fire in recent months as concerned parents, mathematics professors and even some state officials have alleged that the exam tests not algebra but arithmetic.

"I looked at the test, and I thought, ‘There's no algebra here!'” said John Hoven, co-president of the Gifted and Talented Association of Montgomery County and a math curricula expert. Intrigued, Hoven purchased mathematics exams given each year to fifth and sixth grade students in Singapore. He said he found striking similarities between the Algebra HSA and the grade school tests.

Hoven and other opponents of the Algebra HSA are fearful that a low-level test will have a ripple effect, causing classroom instruction to be dumbed down as educators teach to the high-stakes test. They also fear that students will graduate from high school without math skills adequate for success in college and in an increasingly high-tech workplace. With extensive research showing a strong link between success in life and completion of higher level mathematics, the benefits of learning algebra are well demonstrated.

Two college professors—W. Stephen Wilson, of Johns Hopkins University, and Jerome Dancis, of the University of Maryland—support Hoven's position. They have completed independent analyses of the Algebra HSA and concluded that the exam does not contain algebra.

"A more accurate title for the test would be ‘The Maryland Grade Six Assessment of Simple Arithmetic Word Problems,'” said Dancis. "The main knowledge needed for the state's pretend algebra test is reading, common sense and simple arithmetic. Parents will be misled into believing that their children have learned algebra on the basis that their children have passed this mistitled test.”

Wilson, who has never met Dancis, feels similarly. "My nine-year-old fourth grade son could answer many of the questions on this exam without any preparation. It's not a bad exam. It's just not algebra,” he said.

According to Wilson, the core skills of algebra include the ability to perform arithmetic on polynomials the way students have already learned to do for numbers. This "incredibly useful skill” has many applications in higher level mathematics, but, said Wilson, it is not tested on the algebra exam.

Francis Fennell of Western Maryland College, a member of Maryland's math task force, jumped to the test's defense. While Fennell said that he has not worked on the Algebra HSA exam, he vehemently dismissed allegations that the test consists of grade school arithmetic. "I would say that such a statement is crazy, wacko and ill-informed at the least,” he said. "Elementary-level mathematics consists of numbers and operations, geometry, measurement, data analysis and probability. The test in question is algebra-based.”

He added, "The HSA is quite different from fifth grade mathematics anywhere.”

However, Donna Watts, the state education department's math specialist, conceded in a Baltimore Sun article that the HSA does not evaluate all algebra objectives. "I would say that the test covers about 60 percent of what should be in most algebra classes,” she said.

Watts said that the HSA is meant to test algebra objectives that all students, regardless of their level of intelligence or mathematics background, should understand. "This was intended to be a test of what parts of algebra all students should be able to do, across the board,” she said.

The root of the controversy appears to lie in mixed interpretations of exactly what qualifies as algebra. Hoven and supporters said that the HSA consists of questions at a below-pre-algebra level. State education officials gave mixed responses.

Currently, Montgomery College reports a surge in the number of incoming freshmen who need remedial math classes. According to a Maryland Higher Education commission report, evidence shows that one in four graduates from Maryland public high schools needs remediation in algebra upon entering college.

If the Algebra HSA is instituted as a graduation requirement, schools will likely initiate efforts to reach acceptable pass rates. Fennell predicts that "if teachers and the school are threatened in any way relative to the tests' results, they will teach towards it.”

Recent research suggests that a sound background in mathematics—beginning with algebra and continuing on to higher, more difficult courses—is strongly linked to future success in life.

The MCPS mathematics course sequence includes algebra, followed by geometry, a second year of algebra, precalculus, calculus and further advanced courses.

United States Department of Education Senior Research Analyst Clifford Adelman found that taking advanced math courses more than doubles the odds that a student who enters college will complete a bachelor's degree, as reported in the study, "Answers in the Tool Box: Academic Intensity, Attendance Patterns, and Bachelor's Degree Attainment.”

Additionally, the study notes that the benefits of a high school curriculum of high academic intensity and quality have pronounced effects on the success of minorities.

The research of Julian Betts, a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, echoes those conclusions. In a study controlled for demographics and ability levels, Betts found that students who take advanced math courses achieve higher levels of education and higher lifetime earnings than those who do not.

Last year was the first year that the Algebra HSA was administered. Scores will appear on transcripts beginning with the class of 2005, and passing may become a graduation requirement for as early as the class of 2007.

The results of last spring's test administration are pending release.