In a commentary for EdSource, Executive Director Pamela Burdman calls for ensuring routes to STEM fields for historically excluded students, while also making other rigorous math courses available in high school, to allow students to deepen quantitative skills in relevant ways. The debate over California’s math framework, with its myopic focus on which advanced math courses are best for students, glosses over the glaring fact that the majority of California seniors take no advanced math course at all, she notes.
EDSOURCE–The recent debate over California’s proposed math framework is missing the forest for the trees. In its myopic focus on which advanced math courses best prepare high school students for their futures, it glosses over a glaring fact: More than half of California seniors take no advanced math course at all. In fact, California requires students to take only two years of math, through Algebra 1.
As recently as 2018, nearly 40% of schools in the state had no seniors at all enrolled in advanced math, according to a 2019 report. More than 200,000 students left high school without the benefit of any advanced math. These students were more likely to be Black, Latino and low income than students taking advanced math.
For more insights on the role of math in ensuring educational equity, subscribe to Just Equations’ newsletter.
