(Phys.org) -- Learning about all those xs, ys and quadratic
equations too early in life may do more harm than good for some
students, a new University of California, Davis, study says. The
study will be presented at the annual conference of the American
Educational Research Association in Vancouver, Canada. In the
study, UC Davis School of Education professors Michal Kurlaendar
and Heather Rose, together with education programs consultant
Don Taylor, found that the lowest-performing eighth-grade math
students who are least likely to be prepared for algebra may be
academically harmed by a policy that requires all eighth graders
to take the course. Such a universal policy, first proposed by
the California Board of Education, does not take into account
the skills and needs of individual students, the researchers
argue. Much of current education policy including proposed
policy by the California state Board of Education bears out
that, overall, students who complete algebra earlier are more
likely to take advance