City Council’s education committee chair is calling on the School District of Philadelphia to reconsider its “discriminatory” criteria for admission to Julia R. Masterman, the city’s most prestigious public school.

Isaiah Thomas, an at-large member, said his eighth-grade son’s application to Masterman was rejected because he did not take algebra, a course that was not offered to him or about half of middle schoolers in the city.

“This practice is discriminatory,” Thomas commented during a hearing Thursday about algebra access. “Anything that’s in a special admissions policy that everyone can’t have access to, let’s just take it out until everyone gets access to it.

“The data would suggest that the people who have limited access to Algebra 1 in middle school are black and brown children.”

Only about a quarter of Black and 34% of Hispanic students go to schools that offer algebra in 8th grade, compared to 68% of Asian and 71% of white students, according to a fact sheet produced by Children First, an organization that advocates for Philadelphia youth. Their analysis also found that about two-thirds of low-income families attend schools that do not have the course.

“Meanwhile, in the suburbs, access to middle school algebra has been and continues to be taken for granted,” Priyanka Reyes-Kaura, of Children First, testified. “There’s hundreds of seventh graders who are ready for algebra, and they still can’t take it because their school doesn’t offer it.”

Brenda Elliot, the district’s deputy superintendent for academics, noted that 21 of the system’s 22 special admission or magnet high schools do not require algebra, including highly-rated schools like Central and Academy at Palumbo.

Further, the district has made strides in improving access to the class and intends to offer algebra at all schools that include 8th grade beginning in the 2027-2028 academic year, she told lawmakers.

For the upcoming term, algebra will be available at 75 of the 126 schools that include the middle grades, up from 65 this past year, according to Elliot. She said the 42 schools will have dedicated algebra teachers while 33 will utilize the district’s cross-school learning program.

The program allows a single teacher to serve five schools through a fully virtual model and a hybrid system, in which educators come in-person five days every two weeks and instruct remotely for the remainder of the time, Elliot explained.

Of the schools without dedicated algebra teachers, only two have more than 15 students who qualified for the course. Nearly 50 schools have four or less students who met the criteria to take algebra in 8th grade, according to Elliot. She added that the cross-school program makes the most sense for those schools.

Students are eligible to take the class if they scored advanced or proficient on their 6th grade state math assessment.

Children First found that 401 public school students qualified for algebra, based on their 2025 test scores, and were unable to enroll because it was not available at their school. Another 1,100 received a basic score on the math assessment but could succeed in the class with proper support, according to the group.

Advocates from Children First are recommending that the district conduct universal screening and automatic enrollment for algebra. Some students may lack the confidence to sign up for the optional class, while others may not consider themselves “math people,” said Symbol Lai, the organization’s Philadelphia mobilization and policy director.

Expanded tutoring for students and professional development programs for teachers could also improve outcomes, according to Children First.

Beyond admission to Masterman, algebra in middle school can introduce young people to ways of thinking that can lead them into high-income careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), those who testified at the Council hearing said.

Chad Womack, founder and managing director of the STEM empowerment initiative iRISE PHL, noted that Philadelphia has become one of the nation’s leading life sciences hubs. However, African Americans constitute a disproportionately small percentage of the industry’s entrepreneurs and scientific professionals, he said.

“This is an economic issue,” Womack added. “Without the core skills of STEM, our students and our young folks, our families and our communities are essentially locked out of the innovation and tech economy.”

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Keywords

Julia R. Masterman,

Isaiah Thomas,

School District of Philadelphia,

Philadelphia City Council,

Philadelphia schools,

Children First,

education