SFUSD’s Volatile Changes to Algebra I Curriculum

On March 19, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) announced that for the 2026-2027 school year, Algebra I will be implemented across all SFUSD middle schools for eighth-grade students. This implementation follows a 12-year ban on Algebra I in middle schools to avoid “academic tracking,” known as the practice of sorting students into different classes or educational paths based on their assessed ability or achievement.

In 2014, SFUSD delayed offering Algebra I courses until the ninth grade instead of eighth grade—an attempt to close racial disparities, namely to increase Black and Hispanic success in math courses. However, after a 2023 study by Stanford University, researchers found that removing the Algebra I class from the eighth grade curriculum did not reduce racial disparities, and in some cases, had the opposite effect.

In a statement made on March 24, SFUSD published its new Math Placement Policy, where all students are enrolled in Algebra I in 8th grade.
*photo courtesy of SFUSD*

Prompting discussion, SFUSD provided a survey for San Francisco families to complete about Algebra I. Of the 887 responses, 99% explicitly supported offering Algebra I in eighth grade. Earlier, in March 2024, 10 of 11 supervisors signed a proposition, named Proposition G, to reinstate the class, which was brought to the Board of Supervisors.

Interim Lick-Wilmerding High School Math Department Chair and Math teacher José Perez said, “Whenever institutions take that approach to solving a problem by lowering the bar to make it fair for everyone, I don’t know if it’s actually solving the problem. It’s just getting rid of some of the symptoms, but it’s not actually solving the problem of ‘how do we use resources to build everyone up to the same level?’”

While San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie does not direct the oversight of SFUSD, he was deeply interested in improving the San Francisco school system. Responding to a question at the High School Press Forum at City Hall, Charles Lutvak, Mayor Lurie’s press secretary, said, “I think what the mayor would love to see in the school system is a curriculum where kids are learning the basics…where they graduate high school with the foundation that they need in college, in career, whatever that looks like for them.”

In an educational climate full of uncertainty, SFUSD’s implementation of Algebra I further ignites unpredictability—with many San Francisco families now wondering how these back-and-forth cirriculum changes will impact the education that their students receive.