Originally Posted by master of none
I don't know. Our GT program takes the kids through pre-algebra in 6th, and then algebra 1 in 7th. It's a generous GT program, but that didn't keep me from being shocked when the majority failed their first test on "slope". They did that to death in pre-algebra, then learned it again in Algebra and failed the test! So, I'd have to say for the upper half - which is our GT level--Prealgebra might be necessary.

I'm not sure I understood correctly --- do you mean that the upper 50% of the class is considered to be GT?

If so, they've bundled a lot of average students into their GT group and it's not really surprising (to me at least) that a lot of them are struggling. Students with solidly average ability shouldn't be taking algebra until much later than 7th grade.