The Online Algebra Study

REL Northeast and Islands researchers set out to learn what would happen if “algebra-ready” grade 8 students without access to Algebra I were offered it through an online course. Would it affect the students’ math achievement and the kinds of courses they take in high school?

In the study, algebra-ready grade 8 students in half of 68 mostly rural Maine and Vermont middle schools took the online course on laptops or a computer at the back of their regular math class. Those students who took the online course scored higher on a year-end algebra assessment than their algebra-ready peers in the control schools and were twice as likely to take an advanced math course sequence in ninth and tenth grades.