Push for eighth grade algebra questioned

For the past several years, there has been a push to put as many students as possible into eighth grade algebra. While that push shows no signs of letting up, an article in today's Washington Post questions whether so many kids should be taking algebra at the eighth grade level:

Tom Loveless, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, has looked at the worst math students, those scoring in the bottom 10th on the National Assessment of Educational Progress eighth-grade test. He discovered that 28.6 percent of them -- let me make that clear: nearly three out of every 10 -- were enrolled in first-year algebra, geometry or second-year algebra. Almost all were grossly misplaced, probably because of the push to get kids into algebra sooner.