A recent report, Calculated Barriers: Examining the History Behind Math Inequities Facing Black Students, documents seminal events in the United States — including the nation’s history of policies and practices that restrict access and opportunity for Black people — that have constrained Black students’ access to quality math education.
Published in June by Just Equations, a policy institute based in Berkeley that focuses on the role of math in education equity, the report found parallels between denying Black voters representation and constraining Black students’ math education.
“For generations, Black students have been disproportionately excluded and tracked away from high-quality math-learning opportunities — and, unfortunately, many of these racial disparities persist today,” Andrea McChristian, Just Equations’ national policy director and author of the report, said in a statement. “Tracing the historical roots of math inequities makes clear that it is educational policies and practices that have driven differential math outcomes for Black students. We hope this report serves as a foundational tool for transforming our math education system — grounded in the belief that all students are capable of math success when provided with the proper support.”
The report notes that there is a growing movement to enact broad reform in states across the country being driven by declining test scores, pandemic learning loss and the rise of artificial intelligence, making this the time to learn from history — particularly the history of inequitable math opportunity.
For instance, researchers found that while “some Black students in segregated schools had access to advanced course offerings, after desegregation many were tracked into lower-level math courses based on racist stereotypes and beliefs about their math potential in newly integrated schools.”
Additionally, the Higher Education Act of 1965 led to an increase in Black students’ access to and enrollment in higher education, but many Black students were still tracked into remedial courses or lengthy prerequisite sequences, slowing or blocking their entrance into science, technology, engineering and math programs.
The report links these findings to current data, highlighting that Black students account for just 6 percent of those enrolled in Advanced Placement math classes in the 2021–22 school year despite making up 15 percent of the country’s public school population.
Meanwhile, 62 percent of schools with high Black and Hispanic enrollment offered advanced mathematics compared to 71 percent of schools with low Black and Hispanic enrollment. Eighty percent of schools with high enrollments of Black and Hispanic students offered Algebra II compared to 85 percent of schools with low enrollment of these students. And as of 2019, white high school graduates completed calculus at three times the rate of Black graduates — and Asian graduates at more than seven times the rate.
The report offers several policy recommendations aimed at eliminating math disparities, including:
- Redesigning high school mathematics to dismantle barriers to advanced courses
- Ending postsecondary access and admissions policies that perpetuate inequity
- Eliminating lengthy postsecondary math prerequisite sequences
- Investing in culturally responsive instruction and student-centered support
- Aligning math policies across K-16 systems
- Using data and accountability goals to ensure equitable educational policies and practices
