Re-Envisioning Mathematics Pathways to Expand Opportunities: The Landscape of High School to Postsecondary Course Sequences, a new report from the Charles A. Dana Center, Education Strategy Group, and Student Achievement Partners, is now available.
For too many students, the misalignment of high school and postsecondary mathematics requirements is an unnecessary barrier to reaching their academic and career goals. Although the nature of careers has evolved over time, mathematics curriculum and instruction have largely remained unchanged in response to the modern landscape. In response, some states’ postsecondary and K-12 systems have begun to adjust mathematics course sequences to be better aligned to the variety of different fields of study available to students.
The expansion of available mathematics options presents both benefits and new challenges for students; understanding the opportunities and gaps arising from this expansion requires an understanding of how students are advised on course selection and progressing through their mathematics education. This new report analyzes states’ available middle and high school student course-taking data to examine how students’ mathematics course-taking patterns vary within and across states and how state policy levers such as graduation course requirements might be influencing students’ mathematics course-taking decisions. We found that mathematics course taking data is very limited; substantial work must be done on data collection and reporting to better understand students’ progression and where gaps exist.
You can access the report at this link: https://drive.google.com/file/