The Algebra Gate: English Learners’ Access to and Enrollment in Middle School Algebra I, 2021–22 and 2023–24

Algebra I in Grade 8 opens the path to advanced math. We examined whether English learners (ELs) in U.S. middle schools reach it. We used Civil Rights Data Collection files for 2021–22 and 2023–24, with federal poverty and locale data, for about 14,000 schools a year. We found no evidence that a school’s EL share was linked to whether it offered Algebra I. Poverty and rural or town location were. In schools that offered the course, ELs had about one third the odds of their non-EL schoolmates of taking it (odds ratios of 0.34 and 0.36). We found no evidence that the gap changed between years. Odds ratios differed by EL share and poverty, and were lowest in schools with fewer ELs and, separately, in lower-poverty schools. The gap held in six robustness checks. Even where the course was offered, ELs enrolled at much lower rates than their schoolmates.