Giving Compass' Take:

• The Hechinger Report explores the approach San Francisco United School District took to improving outcomes in math for low-income students.

• Among the keys were challenging, conceptually deep courses in middle school, which helped kids prepare for advanced courses later on. Could this be replicated in other districts across the U.S.?

• Here's more on how to build diverse and inclusive STEM programming.

High failure rates in math, especially for low-income and minority students, and small numbers of students enrolled in advanced courses: Like many educational systems, San Francisco Unified School District faced this dual problem.

Every system wants to help students with a math interest learn the subject at high levels because students get a leg up when it comes to getting into college and moving into careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). San Francisco Unified thought carefully about the best way to do this ...

Many people think that the best way to prepare STEM students is to skip or accelerate through middle-school mathematics in order to get as quickly as possible to advanced math courses. This requires that students skim through material and gain only a shallow understanding of ideas. But a shallow curriculum is exactly the failure of U.S. schools. Other high-performing countries, such as Japan and Finland, have learned that speeding through middle school does not result in higher achievement ...

San Francisco Unified did something unusual — it studied the research that shows the ineffectiveness of tracking and shallow curricula, and made bold decisions based on knowledge of the relevant research. District leaders thought deeply about when to accelerate students and what to do before then. They found a unique balance point, which is now seen as a national model. They decided to challenge students earlier with depth and rigor in middle school. All students in the district take Common Core Math 6, 7 and 8. This robust foundation allows students to be more successful in advanced math courses in high school.

Read the full article about San Francisco United's approach to math at The Hechinger Report.