San Francisco stopped offering Algebra 1 in middle school a decade ago. "The number of students enrolled in advanced high school math declined". Shocking! Now the pendulum swings back.
Of course the high-profile people who supported this will never admit that this was a ridiculous idea to begin with. They'll just say it just wasn't implemented properly. And they'll move on to the next big thing in education.
They're already moving on to that next big thing per the article:
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The data showed “dramatic gains” in math scores for students who enrolled in algebra and Math 8 concurrently — equivalent to nearly a full extra year of learning, Professor Dee said.
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And SFUSD says that they'll be co-enrolling deficient students in algebra I and a math 8 lab. This is the new trend, see e.g.
At Whittier College, where I work, this was proposed by a dean and successfully resisted by the math department. It's trendy among administrators because it saves a lot of money, but it's a really bad idea and as far as we could see sets kids with poor arithmetic skills up for failure.
Patrick Honner
Adrian Riskin 
