It's worth noting, though that the percentages of students in "advanced" classes pre-intervention was clearly excessive, if those classes were truly above grade level. Statistically, it is highly unlikely that in a district as large as SFUSD (even if skewed somewhat by tech workers) 2/3 of its students are in the top quartile or higher nationally in math. So it seems apparent that something was indeed off about the placement process, which would explain the high failure rate in algebra I. They were allowing students unprepared for the material to enroll in algebra I. It doesn't necessarily follow, of course, that the solution is to get rid of the levels altogether. The paragraph on middle schools actually suggests that they didn't truly detrack; they appear to have instituted more rigorous selection criteria for placement, with the result that a much more reasonable 12% of grade eight students ended up in advanced math.
