The North Carolina End-of-Course Testing Program was established to provide student, school, and school system information about achievement in high school courses. The 59,723 students who took the Algebra I End-of-Course Test in 1987-88 were a subgroup of the school population in the eighth through twelfth grades. The proportion of students taking Algebra I has increased slightly each year since 1986. Each Algebra I student took a test containing 60 common or core items and one of five different sets of 35 items during the final days of the school year. The average core score in 1988 was 39.2, or 65.3 percent correct. On average, the 1988 Algebra I students scored the same as 1987 Algebra I students in 1.5 raw score points higher than 1986 Algebra I students. Performance on the core test differed by parental education, ethnic group, grade level in school, and anticipated final course grade. The select group of students taking Algebra I in the eighth grade had higher average scores than students at any other grade level. The appendix provides the performance in regions and school systems, student characteristics, and state percentile tables. (Author/YP)