One result of those efforts is that beginning algebra is being taught earlier, typically in the 8th rather than the 9th grade.

In the fall of 2004, 48,000 ninth-graders took beginning algebra; 44% flunked, nearly twice the failure rate as in English. Seventeen percent finished with Ds.

Maria Blanton, Bárbara M. Brizuela, Angela Murphy Gardiner, Katie Sawrey, Ashley Newman-Owens, A progression in first-grade children's thinking about variable and variable notation in functional ...

Marjorie L. Lewkowicz, The Use of "Intrigue" to Enhance Mathematical Thinking and Motivation in Beginning Algebra, The Mathematics Teacher, Vol. 96, No. 2 (FEBRUARY 2003), pp. 92-95 ...