The U.S. News and World Report ranks this school as the 191st nationwide and third in the state of Maryland. Across the country, the report also places the University of California San Diego (UCSD) as the 29th highest national university. Coasts apart, teaching entirely different groups of students, what do these two institutions have in common with each other? Both are suffering from an issue felt nationwide: math curriculums are significantly over-accelerated, and the pressure to take more advanced courses too early has resulted in students lacking necessary, foundational skills.
Traditionally, Algebra 1 has been offered as a ninth grade course, however in 2008, MCPS began developing a new math initiative referred to as “Curriculum 2.0 (C2.0)”. According to MCPS, the goal of the program was to focus on a “strong early foundation” and “deep conceptual understanding” of key math topics, allowing proficient students to access Algebra 1 as early as eighth, seventh or even sixth grade, thus opening the door to AP classes later in high school.
MCPS then rolled out the new curriculum in phases beginning in the 2013-2014 school year. Now a decade removed, this plan has backfired tremendously. Instead of students developing strong foundational skills, the highly accelerated nature has caused students to entirely miss key building concepts, something Prep 1on1 ACT/SAT tutor Alyssa Girod refers to as “gaps.” “Gaps can be identified as spaces or skill sets where students should have been previously prepared for the current grade and are missing key elements that allow them to access materials. Think of it like a bridge that connects two cliffs. Students with the bridge are able to walk to the other side even if they are uncertain of what is over there due to access, but students without one may need to make jumps that are out of reach,” Girod said.
As mere third-graders, MCPS students have the opportunity to sit for accelerated/compacted math testing, where as nine year olds, their performance can shape their academic trajectory even in high school. If students perform well, they take a “compacted” version of grades fourth, fifth, and sixth grade math where all content is covered in a quicker and more condensed manner, allowing select students to complete Algebra 1 in sixth grade.
With MCPS continuing to usher more and more students into advanced math, such gaps were only strengthened by the Covid-19 pandemic and virtual schooling. As honors pre-calculus and multi-variable calculus teacher Alexandra Brasovenau-Tarpy often tells her students after a test, “It is not the advanced calculus you all got wrong, it is the algebra.”
So where does this leave students now? With unrecognized and unfixed gaps in one’s math education, standardized pre-college tests, such as the SAT and ACT, are even more challenging. “A solid understanding of basic math makes the SAT and ACT easier to access. For both tests, skills learned between sixth and eighth grade make up around 25 – 40% of the tests. If students struggle with those skills such as isolating variables, setting up ratios, and working with fractions, they require additional time to complete easier problems, which can cause anxiety over tests and impact their performance,” Girod said.
Such standardized test scores are also crucial to college admissions officers as, in addition to a student’s transcript, they can help to determine their math abilities. However, following Covid-19 many universities went “test-optional” where students declined to submit their test scores and as a result these gaps continued to go unnoticed.
For instance, at UCSD the need for remedial math education has surged over the past five years. “The number of students who are not able to perform at high school level increased, and even the number of students who can’t perform at middle school level increased enormously,” UCSD professor Akos Rona-Tas said.
According to Forbes reporter Anna Esaki-Smith, 2020 university data showed one in 200 incoming students needing remedial math, however in 2026 that number is roughly one in eight students. Even more shocking, “A quarter of students in remedial math got perfect high school scores and before the pandemic, fewer than 100 first-year students enrolled in remedial courses,” Esaki-Smith said.
Some students are incredibly gifted in math, their mind simply “gets” numbers. However that number is slim, slimmer than MCPS believes, and if students continue to be pushed into accelerated courses it will only harm them down the road in high school, college and beyond. “I’m taking non honors pre-calculus now and I completely feel that it’s over accelerated and moving at a faster pace than is acceptable,” junior Gabi Estrada said.
