Fort Worth ISD is recalculating middle school math.
Beginning this fall, on-level courses are gone, leaving two options for students: advanced or accelerated classes. District officials say the shift will give all students access to advanced math regardless of campus, with the goal of getting more of them to Algebra I by or before eighth grade.
The new structure is designed to address seventh-grade math instruction issues that are seen across the nation, Superintendent Peter Licata said during a June 23 board of managers meeting.
“We’re going to aim high. We’re going to push hard,” Licata said. “Seventh-grade math is a dead zone all over the country.”
Most kids will land in advanced math, according to district documents. A majority of those students will take a new version of sixth- and seventh-grade math. The new courses condense three years of math and focus on prerequisite concepts the district saw as necessary for long-term success.
An accelerated pathway will see kids move even faster. Some will complete Algebra I in seventh grade and take geometry in eighth grade.
The shift is part of a broader statewide trend.
Dallas ISD made a similar shift in 2019, and now half of eighth graders are enrolled in advanced Algebra I, according to the Commit Partnership. Additionally, Dallas ISD boosted diversity in honors classes, education news publication The 74 Million reported.
Mohammed Choudhury, deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction, told managers the change was overdue.
“This reckoning around advanced math is not a numbers game — it’s actually the hardest work that we should have done a while ago,” Choudhury said.
During a late June State Board of Education meeting, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath noted the share of seventh graders taking the eighth-grade math STAAR rose from 16% to 32% this spring.
Morath attributed the increase to a 2023 law requiring districts to expand access to advanced math. As a result, Morath said low-income students have greater access to higher-level math courses.
“We want to hold high expectations for kids,” Morath said. “We want to give them an opportunity to shine and give them an opportunity to be in challenging and advanced mathematics courses.”
Parent Courtney Henson’s child starts sixth grade in August. She’s worried that placing students without strong foundational skills into a faster-paced course won’t create mastery — it’ll cause them to fall further behind, she told the board of managers.
“I fully support advanced pathways for students who are ready,” Henson said. “What I do not support is removing parent choice and assuming one pathway is appropriate for every child.”
Jacob Sanchez is education editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez.
Disclosure: FWISD manager Pete Geren leads the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. FWISD manager Laurie George is a member of the Report’s reader advisory council. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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