Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata is touting the efforts that have increased Algebra I enrollment in middle schools.

During a press conference last week, Tata pointed to how 7,232 middle school students took Algebra I in the 2011-12 school year, up 44 percent from 5,027 students the prior year. At the same time, he pointed to how Wake's passing rate on the Algebra I EOC exam (including the scores of high school students) rose 1.1 percentage points to 86.1 percent.

"That’s good news all around," Tata said. "We added 2,000 students. We used the predictive tool (EVAAS) and we increased proficiency. My hat is hat off to our algebra teachers and to our middle and high school principals who really made this a focused effort going forward.”