I wonder what level the public school 8th grade teachers are at with their Algebra at this point and what that has to do with this. I get the impression there are very few 8th grade math teachers who studied math in college as their first choice and then transitioned to education. There are too many more attractive STEM careers if you are inclined towards math, and the best math teachers in a school district are likely to be teaching the advanced 11th and 12th graders.
I took Algebra in public school in 8th grade in 1990. The public school was pretty bad, I remember how frequently we (the 8th graders) were correcting the teacher, he was that bad he was screwing up the examples on the board almost every class.
I got sent to Catholic School for high school. Everyone in the math department had an advanced math degrees. Calculus was taught by a PhD. The curriculum blended Algebra/Geometry/Trig/Calculus across all 4 years instead of the "one thing at a time approach." I remember being very cognizant of thinking I was probably better at algebra by the end of 9th grade than my public school 8th grade teacher had been. The quality difference in the teachers for math was mind blowing between the two schools.
I took Algebra in public school in 8th grade in 1990. The public school was pretty bad, I remember how frequently we (the 8th graders) were correcting the teacher, he was that bad he was screwing up the examples on the board almost every class.
I got sent to Catholic School for high school. Everyone in the math department had an advanced math degrees. Calculus was taught by a PhD. The curriculum blended Algebra/Geometry/Trig/Calculus across all 4 years instead of the "one thing at a time approach." I remember being very cognizant of thinking I was probably better at algebra by the end of 9th grade than my public school 8th grade teacher had been. The quality difference in the teachers for math was mind blowing between the two schools.