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Far too many students see their dreams of future majors and careers dashed by math’s role as a gatekeeper to opportunity. It doesn’t have to be this way. Instead, math education can become a gateway to opportunity for all students. That’s precisely why Just Equations is rolling out Math That Meets the Moment: A Policy Agenda To Reenvision the Role of Math in Ensuring Educational Equity.

For too long, math education in the United States has served as one of those structures, a gatekeeper to educational opportunity, particularly for historically underrepresented students. Just Equations seeks to shift the role of math from gatekeeper to gateway. This begins with understanding how and why math education contributes to inequity. 

Did you know that only about a third of U.S. bachelor’s graduates earn degrees in a major that requires a calculus course? This may surprise some in the education world, since high school math sequences are often oriented toward preparing students for calculus as an indicator of college readiness. 

Math literacy is more than the ability to solve for x. It is foundational for justice, for full participation in society and for the flourishing of democracy—government for the people, by the people.

With Head Start identifying ways to improve math instruction to fulfill its mandate of helping “children build the skills they need to be successful in school and life,” why is it the case that, as these students continue on with schooling, their options for math coursework that is responsive to their interests—and the ever-changing world around them—begin to narrow?