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As colleges continue to raise the mathematics requirements for entrance, students are having an increasingly difficult time rising to the occasion. There have been many debates over when "higher" mathematics instruction should begin. "Higher" mathematics is defined as Algebra I and any other courses beyond. Some believe that it should begin in eighth grade, a year earlier than the norm, in the United States, to give students an edge on standardized tests that lead to college admission decisions. However, there seems to be a lack of data that examines the long-term effects of early access to Algebra to support the idea that the extra year really makes a difference (Silva, 1990).

The idea that Algebra I education could begin in middle school has been around for a long time. In the early 1900s the idea began to circulate to make the middle school mathematics curriculum more challenging. Some early investigations began to look into if students were capable of handling the abstract ideas of Algebra in the late middle school years. However, nothing came of these early studies. Educators continued the practice of Algebra I being taught in the ninth grade and despite the few voices of change (Taylor, 1905).
Later, in the 1990s, the educational reform movement sparked by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics began to examine the mathematics curriculum very closely. Groups began to recognize that there was a problem within the mathematics discipline of the United State's education system. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1989) recommended increased literacy in mathematics for all students not just the academically advanced. In 1994 the National Center of Education Statistics released a report that stated that effective middle schools offer algebra for eighth grade students (NCES, 1994). These events began turning the clock of change in mathematics curriculum. A study of the TIMSS and TIMSS-R showed that the middle school math curriculum for eighth grade students in the US was comparable to the seventh grade mathematics curriculum in other countries that participated in the study. Therefore, US students were at a disadvantage by the age of 13 (Greene, Herman, & Haury, 2000). With the world's economy becoming more interdependent and the job market more competitive we need to research what changes should be made to the middle school mathematics curriculum for the eighth grade to find a way to give US students the edge over the job market. In order

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